Jason G. Sheasby

Over the last three years, Jason Sheasby has chalked up almost $1.2 billion in verdicts in patent cases.

Just last month, he and an Irell team won a $303.15 million verdict for Netlist Inc. A Texas jury took only three hours to decide that Samsung had willfully infringed five Netlist patents that deal with high-tech memory modules used in servers. The verdict only covers 18 months of Samsung sales, and the court is expected to award additional damages going forward, Sheasby said. Netlist, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 2:21-cv-00463 (E.D. Tex., filed Dec. 20, 2021).

The case is part of a sprawling complex of litigation that Irell is handling for Netlist against Samsung and Google in Texas, Delaware and Northern California.

In the recent trial, Netlist accused Samsung of continuing to use the patents after a licensing agreement was terminated. One challenge for Sheasby’s team was that a jury in an earlier trial (handled by a different firm) found Samsung had breached the contract but awarded no damages.

Further, Sheasby said, “the judge didn’t allow us to explain the reason why the contract was terminated, so we couldn’t paint Samsung as a nasty contract breacher.”

Other nine-figure verdicts he’s landed include three for the United Services Automobile Association against Wells Fargo and PNC Bank for infringing USAA’s patents on its technology that allows mobile check deposits. Those jury awards total about $500 million.

In 2021, he and co-counsel scored a $300 million verdict for PanOptis against Apple for infringing standard essential patents covering 4G LTE technology.

In January this year, Sheasby and team succeeded in a trial not involving computer chips. They won $59.5 million for DuPuy Synthes, part of Johnson & Johnson, against a company that had copied DuPuy’s orthopedic devices to repair dogs’ damaged knees. Then in February, they obtained a permanent injunction barring the defendants from selling any more of their copies. DePuy Synthes Products, Inc. v. Veterinary Orthopedic Implants, Inc., 18-cv-01342 (M.D. Fla., filed Nov. 12, 2018).

Coming up, Sheasby is scheduled to go to trial against Samsung again, this time on behalf of Chinese cellular company G+ Communications.

Then in late November, he will take the company that makes McDonald’s McFlurry machines to trial for trying to block a device invented by his client that helps franchisees keep the troubled machines clean and functioning. Kytch, Inc. v. Gamble, RG21099155 (Ala. Super. Ct., filed May 10, 2021).

Sheasby credits his singular trial record to America’s innovative spirit. “The secret of my success is not me,” he said. “It’s the inventions and the inventors and the story. I’m still a big believer in American innovation.”

— Don DeBenedictis