NobelBiz was awarded $1.5 million by a Texas jury last week after Global Connect and TCN were found to have violated two of Nobel’s patents.
Because the jury unanimously agreed that the defendants willfully violated the patents, the court could increase the damages to $5 million.
“We are extremely pleased – though not at all surprised – with the jury’s verdict,” said Rich Mahfouz, Chief Executive of NobelBiz, in a statement. “Ten years ago NobelBiz invented a game changing telecommunications feature, LocalTouch®. NobelBiz has worked hard and expended significant resources to develop and to protect our intellectual property rights surrounding LocalTouch®. The jury’s verdict here is the culmination of three and a half years of ethical, intense and zealous litigation by NobelBiz. It reaffirms the strength of our patents, and our commitment to protecting and defending NobelBiz’s intellectual property.”
The two patents – 8,135,122 and 8,565,399 – seem to cover the same form of technology. According to the filings:
Therefore, it would be desirable to implement a system to modify a communication from an Originator to provide a callback number or other contact information to the Target that may be closer to or local to the Target, in order to reduce or eliminate the payment of long distance toll charges in the event the Target dials the callback number.
NobelBiz originally filed the lawsuit more than three years ago.
None of the named parties immediately returned requests for comment.
