TYLER, Texas-
A federal court jury on Monday sided with EchoStar Communications Corp., the parent of the Dish satellite-TV service, in a patent lawsuit brought by a Texas company.
Forgent Networks Inc. had accused EchoStar of violating a patent it holds on technology used in video teleconferencing over phone lines, but the jury ruled that the patent was invalid.
EchoStar said Forgent sought more than $200 million in damages, although Forgent disputed the amount.
Jeffrey Blum, EchoStar vice president and associate general counsel, said the company decided to fight against the lawsuit even though other defendants settled Forgent patent lawsuits. He said the unanimous verdict of the eight-person jury vindicated the Englewood, Colo., company’s position.
Jay C. Peterson, chief financial officer for Forgent, said the company was disappointed by the verdict.
“We believe the patent is valid, and we are currently assessing our options,” he said.
Austin-based Forgent develops and licenses patents. Last year, the company reached an $8 million settlement with big technology companies including Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp. and Microsoft Corp. over a patent Forgent acquired covering the JPEG digital-image format.
