CEATS, Inc. v. Continental Airlines, Inc. et al.

Analysis Group was retained by Fish & Richardson P.C., Thompson & Knight, and Klemchuk Kubasta LLP in this patent infringement lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler division. The plaintiff's suit against Analysis Group clients AirTran, Alaska Air, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, United, US Airways, Virgin America, Live Nation/Ticketmaster, and TicketsNow was related to online ticketing patents that allegedly covered a mouse-over feature in conjunction with an interactive seat map. The plaintiff sought per-ticket royalty rates and total claimed damages of more than $90 million against all 10 defendants.

An Analysis Group team, led by Senior Advisor Keith R. Ugone, and Vice President Minh Doan, conducted an independent evaluation of CEATS's claimed damages and prepared rebuttal reports. Dr. Ugone testified in depositions and at trial that CEATS's claimed damages were significantly overstated in light of the low-cost, acceptable, non-infringing alternatives available to the defendants. Dr. Ugone also testified that analyses of financial data before and after the removal of the accused feature indicated there was no discernible nexus between the accused feature and business performance or customer satisfaction.

After a 10-hour deliberation, the jury found that CEATS's patent claims were invalid.

In the same lawsuit, CEATS had also sued Caribbean Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Jordanian, TicketNetwork, and Tickets.com. Dr. Ugone was the damages expert for all 16 defendants.