Faegre & Benson Wins Summary Judgment of Non-Infringement for NETGEAR

In December 2007, Fujitsu Limited, LG Electronics, and U.S. Philips Corporation filed a patent infringement action in the Western District of Wisconsin against NETGEAR, Inc., a San Jose–based distributor of wireless internet products. The plaintiffs each alleged that hundreds of NETGEAR's Wi-Fi products infringed multiple claims of their respective patents.

The lawsuit arose as a test case after NETGEAR refused to take a license to a patent pool put together by the plaintiffs and several other corporations.

NETGEAR retained Faegre & Benson while the case was pending in February 2009 to assist NETGEAR's counsel of record with the summary judgment briefing. In late April, Faegre & Benson was retained as sole counsel. The case was set for trial in October.

On September 18, Judge Barbara B. Crabb granted NETGEAR summary judgment of non-infringement on all the asserted claims. In a 71-page summary judgment opinion, Judge Crabb concluded that non-infringement was clear and because there was no reason to believe NETGEAR was at risk for further infringement suits, the court exercised its discretion not to decide NETGEAR's invalidity counterclaims and defenses.

NETGEAR Vice President of Legal and Corporate Development Andrew Kim said, "We are very pleased the court reached the correct result. NETGEAR respects the intellectual property of others, but will take a stand when it believes it is not infringing."

NETGEAR was represented by Ken Liebman, Chad Drown and Kevin Wagner in the Faegre & Benson Minneapolis office and Nina Wang in the firm's Denver office. Catherine Cetrangalo of the Boardman Law Firm in Madison, Wis., served as local counsel.

Two of the three patents in suit are currently undergoing a reexamination before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. NETGEAR has retained Faegre & Benson to represent it on any appeal of the district court's decision.