Resonate, Inc. v. Nortel Networks

Alteon, a subsidiary of our client, Nortel, manufactured and sold a "web switch" to manage Internet server farms. Alteon was sued by Resonate, which alleged that Alteon induced and contributed to its customers' infringement of Resonate's patent for URL-based server load balancing.

The plaintiff's expert asserted a very high reasonable royalty and applied it to a very large royalty base, arguing that the rate was applicable given the specifics of the case. An Analysis Group case team, led by Managing Principal Jeffrey H. Kinrich, established that the reasonable royalty per unit should in fact be much lower and that the base of infringing products was much smaller than the plaintiff asserted. Through statistical analysis of customer lists, Analysis Group demonstrated that only a small portion of the customer base had used the allegedly infringing features. Mr. Kinrich provided deposition testimony on these issues. Nortel won summary judgment just before the trial began.