Phillips Nizer Trial Team Receives Jury Verdict in Favor of Park Assist/TKH Security
10/04/2022Phillips Nizer LLP announces another victory in favor of its client TKH Security (formerly Park Assist) (“TKH”), and against its competitor Indect USA, Corp (“Indect”). The Phillips Nizer team received a favorable jury verdict following trial in the Southern District of California. The jury verdict rejected plaintiff Indect’s four year effort alleging unfounded unfair competition claims under the Lanham Act, denied Indect its alleged damages, and rejected Indect’s assertion that the patent was invalid.
After the seven day trial, the jury found that TKH did not violate the Lanham Act -- a patent owner is entitled to protect its patent rights and in the absence of bad faith there can be no liability. The jury rightly found no bad faith under the Lanham Act and rejected Indect’s damages claims. The jury also rejected Indect’s effort to invalidate the patent as obvious. The jury’s verdict further confirmed the validity of TKH’s patent after the Court previously rejected Indect’s failed attacks on the patent as not directed to patentable subject matter and as indefinite. In total, Indect’s efforts to invalidate the patent have now been rejected three different times. While Indect has touted the jury’s finding that there was insufficient evidence of Indect’s past and present infringement, the ultimate issue of whether use of Indect’s system will infringe was not a question submitted to the jury.
The Chair of Phillips Nizer’s Patent Practice Group and TKH trial counsel Tod Melgar said “This was a long awaited vindication for our client after four years of unfounded allegations of unfair competition under the Lanham Act for doing what TKH believed it had the right and obligation to do – to provide notice of its patent and protect its patent from infringement. Our success in getting to the truth and vindicating TKH was made possible through the outstanding work of our team.”
TKH is the leading developer and provider of innovative camera-based intelligent parking systems and software. TKH introduced its pioneering camera-based system for parking guidance in 2010. TKH’s camera based parking guidance systems had capabilities that were unavailable with the older ultrasonic based parking guidance systems. TKH’s camera-based parking guidance provided for in space license plate recognition, among other things, which provided advanced functions including locating vehicles within a parking garage via license plate look up and identifying and enforcing unauthorized parking. TKH’s innovative camera-based parking guidance system is protected by United States Patent No. 9,594,956, entitled “Method and System for Managing a Parking Lot Based on Intelligent Imaging,” which was duly and legally issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on March 14, 2017, and is still in full force and effect.
The team representing TKH included Tod M. Melgar and Timothy Heaton of Phillips Nizer LLP, Scott Stimpson of Sills Cummis & Gross, PC, and Jason Kirby of Kirby & Kirby LLP, along with a team consisting of Steven Luksenberg, Jason Plotkin and Leah Frankel, and Paralegal Kristine Grissett.