Judge Throws Out IP Suit, Citing Expired 3D Glasses Patent

VDPP LLC, an Oregon based ligation outfit failed to convince a Houston federal judge that Finnegan client Volkswagen Group of America owed them for infringing their patent covering 3D glasses. The patent in question expired in 2022, a year before VDPP lawyer William P. Ramey III of Ramey LLP filed the suit.

"A patentee cannot recover damages — equitable or monetary — on an expired patent," wrote U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal. "The … patent had expired 18 months before VDPP filed this lawsuit."

Ramey, a prolific filer of patent suits, tried to refute the ruling by citing that Volkswagen still owed VDPP for infringing the patent before it had expired, however he did not impress the judge.

"In order to obtain pre-suit damages … VDPP must show that it made an affirmative communication to Volkswagen of specific instances of alleged infringement. The only communication VDPP pleads is the filing of this lawsuit," Judge Rosenthal wrote.

According to Volkswagen's lawyers, this was the first time one of these cases by VDPP had been dismissed by a federal judge.

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