Association with Standards Setting Organization May Provide Knowledge Sufficient to Support Induced and Willful Infringement Claims

The court denied defendants' motion to dismiss plaintiff's induced and willful infringement claims for failure to sufficiently allege knowledge of the patents-in-suit. "From Plaintiff’s allegations involving 3GPP and ETSI, one can infer that the patents-in-suit are implicated in a standard. Although Plaintiff’s factual allegations are not robust, at this stage of the proceedings it plausible that Defendants that (1) associate with a standards-setting organization and that (2) make or sell products that allegedly infringe standard-implicated patents would be motivated to maintain some level of familiarity with patents declared essential to the standard. Furthermore, it follows from Defendants’ alleged knowledge of the patents that Defendants plausibly knew their customers and end users directly infringe the patented claims when they use the accused devices as expected."

Cellular Communications Equipment LLC v. HTC Corporation et al, 6-13-cv-00507 (TXED March 27, 2015, Order) (Davis, J.)