A Texas federal judge has dismissed CogniPower LLC’s claims that certain Samsung electronics infringe its power converter patents, agreeing that the key infringement issue was already decided in a separate lawsuit.
In a short order issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap adopted a December report and recommendation from U.S. Magistrate Judge Roy S. Payne, concluding that CogniPower is barred from relitigating whether Samsung products using specific Power Integrations chips infringe the asserted patents.
Judge Gilstrap said the court agreed with the magistrate judge’s reasoning that the central infringement question had already been resolved in earlier litigation involving another electronics company.
That earlier case went to trial against Chinese electronics maker Anker, where a jury found that Anker’s charger products did not infringe two of CogniPower’s power converter patents. Those same patents are also among those asserted against Samsung in the Texas case.
CogniPower had argued that both Anker and Samsung products rely on circuitry chips manufactured by Power Integrations. However, the jury in the Anker trial determined that the Power Integrations InnoSwitch3 chips did not meet the limitations of the patented technology.
As a result, Judge Payne found that the prior verdict must be given preclusive effect.
“The Delaware decision is given preclusive effect in the present case such that the court finds plaintiff is collaterally estopped from re-litigating the issue of whether Samsung’s products that incorporate the Power Integrations InnoSwitch3 may infringe the asserted claims,” Judge Payne wrote in his recommendation.
CogniPower operates in the field of power conversion and energy management and claims to have developed technology aimed at improving power efficiency, according to its complaint.
The lawsuit against Samsung was filed in April 2023 in the Eastern District of Texas, accusing the South Korean electronics company of infringing several reissued patents related to power converter technology.
Samsung declined to comment on the ruling Thursday. CogniPower did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The patents at issue include U.S. Reissue Patent Nos. RE47,031, RE47,713, RE47,714, RE49,157 and RE49,425.
CogniPower is represented by Robert Christopher Bunt of Parker Bunt & Ainsworth PC, Jason G. Sheasby and Stephen M. Payne of Irell & Manella LLP, and Andrew Choung and Jennifer Hayes of Nixon Peabody LLP.
Samsung is represented by Melissa R. Smith, Andrew Thompson Gorham and J. Travis Underwood of Gillam & Smith LLP, Christopher J. Burrell, Timothy E. Grimsrud and Chad Drown of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, and Michael J. McKeon, Brian P. Boyd, John W. Thornburgh, Francis J. Albert and Thomas H. Reger II of Fish & Richardson PC.
The case is CogniPower LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. et al., case number 2:23-cv-00160, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
