AT&T Mobility, a U.S. wireless carrier, and Nokia of America Corp. have succeeded in overturning a $166.3 million patent infringement verdict after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the jury’s finding relied on contradictory expert testimony.
The case involved claims from patent-licensing company Finesse Wireless LLC, which had accused Nokia’s cell towers of infringing its patented intermodulation technology under U.S. Patent No. 7,346,134 and U.S. Patent No. 9,548,775. Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore, writing for the panel, said, “There is nothing clear about Dr. Wells’ testimony,” criticizing Finesse’s expert for misinterpreting Nokia’s technical documents. Judges Tiffany P. Cunningham and Richard Linn joined the opinion.
The dispute began in 2021 when Finesse sued AT&T and Verizon Wireless, alleging that their cell towers improperly used its patented technique to screen out signal interference. While Verizon and Ericsson, its tower supplier, settled, the case against AT&T and Nokia went to trial in January 2023, resulting in a $166.3 million jury award, later raised to $181 million with interest. Following the appellate ruling, Nokia said it “respects the intellectual property rights of others and we did not believe that the Finesse patents-in-suit were infringed.”
