Marshall Federal Jury Awards $11.5 Million in Patent Case over Smart Thermostat Technology

A federal jury in Marshall ordered Canadian-based home automation company Ecobee Technologies ULC to pay Ollnova Technologies $11.5 million in damages for infringing a patent related to smart thermostat technology following a five-day trial.

The trial was held in U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap’s courtroom, and ended last week, with the jury finding infringement to claims of one of the four patents-in-suit, and ordering Ecobee to pay a lump sum of $11.5 million.

The plaintiff, Ollnova, whose principal base is in Ireland, was seeking a running royalty of $46,582,054 in the case. The jury took five hours to deliberate.

In the case, the lawsuit arose under the patent laws of the United States claiming Ecobee, directly and through subsidiaries or intermediaries, committed and continues to commit acts of infringement in this district (the Eastern District of Texas jurisdiction) by, among other things, importing, offering to sell and selling products that infringe the asserted patents-in-suit.

The lawsuit goes on to claim that Ecobee has and continues to make, use, offer for sale, sell, and/or import certain products and services, including without limitation the Ecobee SmartThermostat, Ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control, Ecobee Smart Si Thermostat, Ecobee3 SmartThermostat, Ecobee4 SmartThermostat, and Ecobee3 Lite SmartThermostat (“Accused Products”), that directly infringe, literally and/or under the doctrine of equivalents, one or more claims of the patents.