Dell, Caltech agreement ends remaining lawsuit over Wi-Fi patents

The California Institute of Technology and Dell [RIC:RIC:DI.UL] told a Texas federal court that they have agreed to resolve Caltech's lawsuit claiming Dell infringes the school's patents covering wireless-communications technology.

Caltech and Dell said in a court filing with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas on Tuesday that they would dismiss the case with prejudice, ending a string of high-stakes Caltech patent lawsuits against tech companies over Wi-Fi chips.

Representatives for Dell and Caltech did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a request for comment and more information, including on whether a settlement had been reached.

Caltech previously won a $1.1 billion jury verdict against Apple AAPL and Broadcom AVGO in a dispute over some of the same patents, though a U.S. appeals court later ordered a retrial on the damages amount. The Pasadena, California university has since settled that case as well as related lawsuits against Samsung [RIC:RIC:SMELA.UL], Microsoft MSFT, and HP HPQ.

Caltech sued Round Rock, Texas-based Dell in 2020, alleging that Wi-Fi technology in the company's laptops, desktops and other products infringed the school's patents. Dell asked the court in February to dismiss the case, arguing that the university failed to establish that its products could have infringed.

The case is California Institute of Technology v. Dell Technologies Inc, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 6:20-cv-01042.

For Caltech: James Asperger, Kevin Johnson, Todd Briggs and Brian Biddinger of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

For Dell: Sarah Frazier, James Dowd, Joseph Haag, Sonal Mehta, Mark Selwyn, Joseph Mueller, Richard O'Neill and Cynthia Vreeland of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr; Brian Nash of Morrison & Foerster

Read more:

CalTech wins $1.1 billion jury verdict in patent case against Apple, Broadcom

Caltech ends high-stakes US patent fight with Apple and Broadcom

Caltech resolves lawsuit against HP over Wi-Fi patents