800 Adept Inc. prevails in federal court battle over 1-800 technology.

The Maher Law Firm announced a final judgment of $49 million entered on April 12, 2007 on behalf of the firm's client 800 Adept Inc. in a patent infringement lawsuit over technology used to route toll-free phone calls. "We are very pleased the court upheld the jury's decision that our client's intellectual property was wrongly infringed," says Steven R. Maher, counsel for Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based 800 Adept. "The court's ruling sends a clear message to any company that might try to infringe our client's legal patent rights."
   
In addition to the $49 million award, the court also invalidated all the defendants' asserted claims related to nine different patents.  800 Adept is an innovator and provider of telephone routing technologies and strategic market analysis for a wide variety of businesses, including telecommunications and Fortune 500 companies with thousands of locations. 800 Adept was also was represented by the Orlando, Fla.-based Intellectual Property law firm of Allen, Dyer, Doppelt, Milbrath & Gilchrist, P.A.
    
The judgment includes a permanent injunction preventing defendants Murex Securities Ltd of the Isle of Man, and Vienna, Va.-based affiliates Murex Licensing Corp. and Targus Information Corp. from using 800 Adept's technology to provide similar services. The judgment also upheld a jury finding of willful infringement of two of 800 Adept's U.S. patents (numbers 5,805,689 and Re: 36,111). The jury verdict was issued Oct. 30, 2006, following a six-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

The contested patents involve technology for routing toll-free phone calls to particular destinations based on a caller's location. 800 Adept applied for related patents in 1992, but later learned that Murex Securities was issued several patents covering the same technology even though 800 Adept's application came first.
 
Testimony in the case proved that Murex employees threatened 800 Adept and its customers with lawsuits, which damaged several of 800 Adept's business relationships. In the judgment, Murex and company licensee Targus are ordered to pay $18 million for patent infringement; $24 million in enhanced damages; $2 million in compensatory damages; and $5 million in punitive damages.

The Maher Law Firm is a national law firm with offices in Orlando, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Albuquerque. In addition to intellectual property litigation, the firm also protects the rights of personal injury victims by helping them earn just compensation for their loss and suffering. The firm handles a wide array of personal injury and wrongful death cases, including nursing home abuse, medical malpractice, premises liability, product liability and class action claims.