BALTIMORE, March 6 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network — The $612.5 million agreement between Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) and NTP Inc. to settle the “BlackBerry” suit was based on the damage opinion set forth in 2002 by NTP’s damages expert witness, Terry L. Musika of Invotex Group.
On November 21, 2002, after the jury in the
Eastern District of Virginia found that RIM had willfully infringed NTP’s U.S.
patents by selling their BlackBerry product, the jury awarded NTP damages
based on a reasonable royalty of 5.7%, which was drawn from Musika’s expert
testimony on the appropriate form and amount of damages. The final judgment
awarded NTP a 5.7% royalty on all revenue from U.S. BlackBerry sales.
However, until Friday of last week, the only party to this dispute that did
not agree with Musika was RIM. RIM’s agreement to pay $612.5 million to NTP
ends this long-running patent dispute and signals a final acceptance of
Musika’s opinions by RIM.
That the $612.5 million settlement represents one of the largest patent
settlements in the history of the U.S. and that Musika was a central figure in
the determination of the appropriate amount of damages is no coincidence. For
more than a decade, Musika has been involved in many of the country’s major
complex patent disputes. He provided expert opinion in the University of
California v. Genentech case ($200 million settlement), the Mylan v. KUDCO
case ($37.5 million settlement) and the Imagexpo v. Microsoft case ($60
million settlement), among others.
For nearly 20 years, Invotex Group has provided accounting and financial
consulting services to the business and legal communities, financial
institutions, insurance companies and governmental entities in matters
involving disputes, investigations, reorganizations, insurance and valuations.
Invotex also offers advisory services for intellectual property owners,
including licensing, technology evaluation and license compliance, asset
management and enforcement of IP rights. The firm, headquartered in
Baltimore, Maryland, also has offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and
Washington, DC.
For more information, contact Terry L. Musika at 410-824-0145.
http://www.invotexgroup.com
