Fracas Over Attorneys’ Fees Bleeds Into Verizon Patent Suit (1)

Verizon Wireless Personal Communications LP told a Texas federal judge that a company’s failure to pay hefty attorneys’ fees in a similar but older patent-infringement case means it can’t continue its newer, potentially 9-figure case against the telecom giant.

The case is moot and should be dismissed, Verizon said in an emergency motion to dismiss Friday in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas. It argued that Traxcell Technologies LLC—a non-practicing entity owned by Tucson, Arizona, inventor Mark Jefferson Reed—lost the patents it’s asserting after being put into receivership for failing to pay a bond as it ...