AT&T, Nokia Duck $166 Million Texas Patent Verdict on Appeal (1)

The Federal Circuit erased a patent owner’s $166.3 million verdict against AT&T Mobility LLC and its cell phone tower supplier Nokia of America Corp., saying a jury’s infringement finding relied on “contradictory” expert testimony.

Finesse Wireless LLC’s infringement expert, Jonathan Wells, testified about how Nokia towers allegedly copied Finesse’s patented intermodulation technology, but US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore took issue with his statements to an East Texas jury about Finesse’s US Patent No. 7,346,134.

“There is nothing clear about Dr. Wells’ testimony,” Moore wrote in a precedential opinion issued Wednesday.

Moore also said Wells misread a Nokia technical document when comparing Nokia’s cell towers to the second patent asserted at trial, US Patent No. 9,548,775.

Given the appellate panel’s conclusion that Nokia and AT&T didn’t infringe the patents, Moore said, the appeals court didn’t need to address the separate arguments challenging the district court’s damages award and denial of their motion seeking a retrial.

Nokia put out a short statement Wednesday saying it “respects the intellectual property rights of others and we did not believe that the Finesse patents-in-suit were infringed” by its products.

Finesse didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the ruling.

The patent-licensing company sued AT&T and Verizon Wireless in 2021 for patent infringement based on a technique used in the telecom giants’ cell towers to screen out signal interference. Verizon and its cell tower manufacturer, Ericsson Inc., settled, while the case against AT&T and Nokia—who intervened at the district court as a defendant—went to trial in January 2023, resulting in the $166.3 million verdict.

The award grew to $181 million in August 2023 when District Judge Rodney Gilstrap added an additional $15 million in pre-judgment interest.

Moore was joined by Judge Tiffany P. Cunningham and Senior Judge Richard Linn.

MoloLamken LLP represents Nokia, and Baker Botts represents AT&T. Finesse is represented by Clement & Murphy and Susman Godfrey.

The case is Finesse Wireless LLC v. AT&T Mobility LLC, Fed. Cir., 24-1039, rev’d and vac’d 9/24/25.