Telecommunications giant Verizon has successfully convinced a Texan court to grant a retrial after a jury in June ordered it to pay a patent holding company $847m for patent infringement.

District judge at the Eastern direct of Texas, Rodney Gilstrap, ordered a retrial on 30 September, ultimately concluding that the jury’s verdict is “against the great weight of the evidence to such a material degree that a new trial is necessary”.

The jury had originally found that Verizon had infringed two patents owned by patent holding company General Access Solutions and relating to wireless access devices in 5G technology.

While stating that the court “has great respect for a jury’s considered verdict”, Gilstrap said the issues raised by Verizon are both substantial and fairly warrant a new trial on the entire case, including the issues of infringement, invalidity and damage.

Verizon had asserted that it did not infringe any of the asserted claims and that all asserted claims were invalid as lacking sufficient written description and enablement.

The court has set a date for the new jury trial for 6 December this year.  

Dallas-based General Access Solutions had filed the original lawsuit against Verizon in 2022 for infringing the two patents that cover some key inventions related to 5G technology, namely “beamforming” and “hot spotting”. Beamforming makes 5G connections more focused toward a receiving device, while a hotspot is a location where people can access the internet wirelessly with a mobile device.

The evidentiary rulings made by the court during the May 2024 pre-trial conference and the original June 2024 jury trial will apply to the new trial. This includes the pre-admission of all trial exhibits. 

Verizon was represented by a Gibson Dunn & Crutcher team led by partner Josh Krevitt.

Meantime General Access Solutions was represented by a team from trial specialists Bartlit Beck led by Glen Eric Summers.