Davis Polk represents various subsidiaries of Comcast Corp. in four patent infringement lawsuits against Sprint Communications Co. LP pending in federal courts across the country. On October 15, 2014, after a week-long trial, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware returned an infringement verdict in favor of Comcast and awarded $7.5 million in damages. The verdict was a complete victory on liability as the jury found that Sprint infringed all asserted claims of the three Comcast patents-in-suit when it provided its Sprint Mobile Integration, Google Voice on Sprint, and Airave 2 small cell services.

Comcast’s case in the District of Delaware was the first of the various lawsuits between the parties to reach trial, and further jury trials are scheduled for February 2015 and January 2016, with another still to be calendared. Sprint initiated the dispute by asserting 14 patents against Comcast’s telephony products and services in the District of Kansas, including a number of patents that it had previously asserted successfully against a number of voice-over-IP telephony providers. Comcast then asserted a number of its own patents in the District of Delaware and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Sprint asserted additional patent claims in those jurisdictions as well.

The Davis Polk trial team included partners Matthew B. Lehr and Anthony I. Fenwick, associates David Lisson, Micah G. Block, Shiwoong Kim and Vesna Cuk, and legal assistant Angela Quach. Members of the Davis Polk team are based in the Menlo Park and New York offices.