The Federal Circuit Wednesday wiped out a $20 million Texas patent verdict over allegedly infringing Google LLC Nest-brand smart thermostats, holding the jury shouldn’t have heard unreliable testimony from the patent owner’s damages expert.
The court took up the case en banc, and seven judges joined onto Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore’s opinion mandating a retrial on damages. The decision reverses a June 2024 panel decision that backed patentee EcoFactor’s trial win.
EcoFactor Inc. presented jurors, through its damages expert David Kennedy, patent license agreements it previously reached with other thermostat companies. Kennedy testified that those agreements, though requiring ...
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