Heim, Payne & Chorush LLP Scores Patent Infringement Win for Oil & Gas Service Provider
A team of attorneys from Heim, Payne & Chorush LLP successfully defended Houston-based oil field equipment and service provider Weatherford U.S. L.P. in a patent infringement lawsuit where the plaintiff sought tens of millions in damages.
Partner Les Payne served as lead counsel for Weatherford alongside fellow firm partner Chris First and former firm partner James “Boone” Baxter, who has since become the newest Magistrate Judge at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Texarkana.
Weatherford was sued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas by Enventure Global Technology, Inc., an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell that holds the largest market share for expandable tubing in the oil and gas industry. Before suing Weatherford over 11 patents covering downhole expandable casings used in oil and gas wells, Enventure had won a $16 million judgment over the same patents against another company.
Early in the case, the Heim, Payne & Chorush attorneys secured a voluntary dismissal that covered four of Enventure’s asserted patents and an order of dismissal on a fifth asserted patent based on lack of standing.
In addition to asserting several Weatherford-owned patents against Enventure, Heim, Payne & Chorush also filed inter partes review (IPR) petitions at the Patent and Trial Appeal Board (PTAB) seeking to invalidate the remaining Enventure patents.
In March, April, and May, the PTAB issued final decisions invalidating five of Enventure’s asserted patents. Enventure’s lawsuit claims were dismissed with prejudice in June.
The case is Enventure Global Technology, Inc. v. Weatherford US, L.P., No. 4:19-cv-02397.