Wragge & Co's Intellectual Property team has secured a High Court judgment against British Telecommunications plc for patent infringement in connection with its Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband network.
The case was brought by ASSIA Inc, the US-based broadband software developer and client of Wragge & Co.
David Barron, head of patents at Wragge & Co, led the team. He said: "This is an extremely important case to our client. BT owns the vast majority of the infrastructure for delivery of broadband in the UK. By refusing to take a licence or admit infringement, BT was effectively blocking access to the UK market to our client, leaving ASSIA with no option but to litigate."
ASSIA sued BT for infringement of three patents in connection with three BT broadband services (20CN, 21CN and NGA). ASSIA's patents relate to Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) management technologies which underpin how the majority of people in the UK receive broadband services over the phone line infrastructure. BT provides broadband services directly to consumers and businesses, and also to other service providers in the UK.
In a detailed judgment handed down today, Mr Justice Birss found that BT's NGA broadband network system infringes EP (UK) 1,869,790 and that the patent is valid. The other patent relied on at trial, EP (UK) 2,259,495, was found valid but not infringed.
On the importance of this case to ASSIA, company General Counsel Noah Mesel commented: "The result here validates ASSIA's intellectual property with respect to BT and the findings of validity are highly relevant to our discussions with other operators who we believe also implement broadband management systems that read to ASSIA's extensive patent portfolio. ASSIA's management team greatly appreciates the efforts of the team at Wragge & Co and barristers Iain Purvis QC and Joe Delaney."
The Wragge & Co team included Alexandra Brodie, partner and co-chair of the firm's Tech sector team, associates Andrew Maggs and John Coldham, solicitors Michael Carter and Tom Foster and trainee Sebastian Godolphin.
Alexandra Brodie said: "This is a significant patent action in the UK court, and our victory was made possible by our specialist team which immersed itself in DSL technology. We worked closely with the General Counsel and industry experts at our client and with our barristers. Both barristers did a fantastic job working with us in the detailed preparation of the case and in delivering skilful and persuasive presentations in court."
In January 2014, the court will settle the form of the final order including consideration of an injunction and the nature of the damages and costs awards. Both parties can seek permission of the court to appeal the judgment.
Wragge & Co's award-winning IP team is based in the UK, France, Germany and China. It has over 50 dedicated specialist IP lawyers advising on litigation, general counselling, licensing, transactional IP and related anti-trust issues. Recent successes include securing a landmark victory in the UK's Supreme Court against Virgin Atlantic Airways and being named TMT Team of the Year at last week's British Legal Awards.
ASSIA is a strategic supplier and trusted solutions vendor to broadband service providers worldwide. ASSIA, which was founded in 2003 by Professor John Cioffi, has more than 70 million broadband lines under contract with top tier service providers worldwide and is backed by strategic investors including AT&T, Mingly China Growth Fund, SFR Development, Sandalwood Partners, Sofinnova Partners, Stanford University, Swisscom Ventures, T-Ventures and Telefonica.
