September 2013: Favorable Result for Motorola Mobility and Time Warner Cable in Billion-Dollar Patent Litigation Against TiVo

Quinn Emanuel successfully obtained a very favorable settlement for clients Motorola Mobility and Time Warner Cable (“TWC”) in a patent infringement suit filed by TiVo, Inc. in the Eastern District of Texas. The TiVo patents-in-suit related to DVR functionality that permits a viewer to simultaneously record and playback a TV program. TiVo had previously secured over $1 billion litigation settlements relating to these patents and was seeking almost $4 billion in damages against Motorola and TWC. However, Quinn Emanuel helped secure a settlement for a fraction of that amount and at a significantly smaller royalty rate than had been paid by previous defendants. In fact, when the terms of the parties’ settlement were made public, TiVo’s stock price fell 19% within a couple hours.

The firm took the case over from another firm in the middle of expert discovery and less than three months before the start of trial. Upon being retained, the Quinn Emanuel team immediately got to work preparing a trial strategy while at the same time drafting responsive expert reports, summary judgment motions, Daubert motions, and motions in limine.

Quinn Emanuel prevailed on two key pre-trial motions. First, evidence obtained during discovery showed that TiVo derived the idea for its DVR patents from one of Motorola’s predecessor companies and that in fact Motorola, not TiVo, was the first company to develop the claimed technology. TiVo’s attorneys filed numerous motions, including a request for sanctions under Rule 11, to try to keep this evidence from the jury but were unable to do so, leaving TiVo to face the prospect of having its key patents invalidated. Second, because Motorola had filed suit against TiVo first, Motorola was technically the plaintiff and therefore entitled to present its case regarding the invalidity of TiVo’s patent to the jury first. Recognizing the dire implications of allowing Motorola to go first, TiVo filed several motions to be named a plaintiff and to switch the order of proof at trial. Once again, Quinn Emanuel defeated each of these motions, putting TiVo at a huge procedural disadvantage. The case settled shortly thereafter.