We’ve been exceptionally busy lately, so this is the first time we’ve had some time to actually take a look at what we’ve accomplished.
The Mann Law Group, now with a new associate Timothy Billick (bio and press release to come later), partnered up with John Whitaker to obtain a unanimous jury verdict award in the case Brilliant Instruments Inc v. GuideTech Inc. in the Northern District of California, Oakland Division (Case No No. C. 09-5517). The jury accordingly awarded a six-figure damages award to Mann Law Group’s client. The firm represented GuideTech in this declaratory judgment action initiated by Brilliant Instruments.
The case covered Patent No. 6,226,231 (‘231 Patent), which generally relates to a “plularity of measurement circuits” which are used to measure electrical signals down to the picosecond range. For you nomenclature nuts, that’s 10 to the -12th second (or one-trillionth of one second). MLG inherited the case from several other law firms after it had been successfully appealed to the Federal Circuit and remanded to Oakland for trial.
“None of that was unanimous”
Every case has at least one or two lessons to be learned. This case? Always poll your jury, and always explain what “unanimous” means. After the judge had re-explained her instructions to the jury, the jury initially told us we lost. However, just as the Hon. Judge Claudia Wilken was getting ready to enter the judgment, one of the jurors spoke up in open court and informed the Court that the verdict “WAS NOT UNANIMOUS!”
The jury was ordered to continue deliberations. The next day, they came back in our favor.
We still have motions pending for an injunction, a defendant’s motion to set aside the jury verdict, and a motion for an amendment of the judgment, but we have safely moved past the jury, and we have a damage award.
Next time we will take great care to make sure the judge tells the jury what “unanimous” means in jury instructions.