As covered by Law360, a Houston federal jury handed Sheppard client Impulse Downhole Solutions a decisive victory, finding that competitor Downhole Well Solutions willfully infringed three Impulse patents covering downhole vibration technology. After eight days of testimony, jurors returned a $47.7 million damages award—$45 million tied to a single patent—positioning Impulse to seek enhanced damages. Law360 notes that the Sheppard trial team overcame multiple dispositive and Daubert motions and secured court-ordered inspections of the accused PowerGLIDE tools, ultimately convincing jurors that the defendant’s mathematical defenses lacked factual support.
“The jury sent a strong message of support for the innovators who do the experimenting and testing and put in the time to develop better solutions,” said John Keville, lead trial counsel for Impulse. “Willful infringement is not a finding juries come to lightly, and it tells the court that 12 people felt this was not a case of an innocent or even merely negligent infringer — this was a case where the defendant acted wrongfully.”
Along with Keville, the Sheppard trial team included Michelle Replogle, Robert Green, Michael Krill, Michael Heins, Chante Westmoreland, Usayd Siddiqi and Evan Lim.
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