Jury Finds for Overhead Door in "Smart" Garage Patent Trial

As reported by The Marshall News Messenger, Overhead Door Corporation was the recent victor in an intellectual property suit brought by The Chamberlain Group Inc. — the world’s largest manufacturer of automatic garage door openers. 

Chamberlain accused Overhead Door of making, using, selling, offering for sale, and/or importing products that infringe Chamberlain’s patents. The impugned products in the suit incorporated technology that allows a person to open and close a garage door from anywhere using a smartphone. 

After hearing the parties’ arguments and evidence at trial, the jury concluded that no infringement had occurred, and moreover, that Chamberlain’s patents were invalid (and, in particular, that its patented technology was not novel).

According to Law360 and IPWatchdog, however, U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap has ordered a partial new trial on issues pertaining to one of the patents, and ordered $1.1 million in costs against Overhead Door for concealing the release of a new garage door opener product that allegedly uses technology covered by Chamberlain’s patents.