Elbit Systems Ltd. announced today, further to its announcement of August 17, 2017, that on June 25, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC ruled completely in Elbit Systems' favor against Hughes Network Systems, LLC ("Hughes") for infringing an Elbit Systems patent relating to high-speed satellite communications, U.S. Patent No. 6,240,073.
The Court of Appeals' judgment affirmed the judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which had also ruled in Elbit Systems' favor. The amount of damages awarded to Elbit Systems, and interest to which Elbit Systems is entitled, (including a $21.1 million jury award, pre-verdict and post-verdict royalties and costs) totals approximately $30 million. The trial court has yet to rule on the extent to which it will grant Elbit Systems' request for $13.8 million in attorneys' fees due to Hughes' "bad faith litigation misconduct," which the Court found to be "exceptional." Any eventual award of attorney's fees would be subject to a separate potential appeal by Hughes.