TEXARKANA, Texas, May 20, 2016 – On May 19, 2016, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the $69 Million final judgment entered in favor of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. by United States Judge Michael Schneider, sitting in the Texarkana Division.  DataTreasury had appealed the judgment seeking to reverse the trial court’s decision.

Datatreasury filed the initial suit against JPMorgan claiming patent infringement of its check processing patents.  The parties subsequently resolved the case and entered into a $70 Million  licensing agreement.  The agreement stated that if DataTreasury licensed the patents to anyone else, JPMorgan would be entitled to what is typically referred to as a “most favored nations clause” or to “any and all more favorable terms” in those agreements.  JPMorgan discovered that the patents were licensed to Cathay General Bancorp for $250,000, a breach of their agreement with DataTreasury, and demanded a refund for the difference in the agreements.

At trial, DataTreasury’s attorneys finally stipulated to damages, and Judge Schneider entered Judgment in favor of Haltom & Doan’s client, JPMorgan, for $69 Million.

After hearing oral argument on the issue, the Fifth Circuit affirmed Judge Schneider’s decision to award $69 Million in favor of JPMorgan.  Jennifer Doan, counsel for JPMorgan, applauded Judge Schneider for his analysis and the Fifth Circuit for its quick affirmance of the victory for her client.  “Defendants should rest assured that if they enter into a license agreement in East Texas, the Courts here are going to hold the plaintiffs to comply with all terms of the contract and not simply take the money out of East Texas and ignore the contract,” said Doan.

JPMorgan’s counsel was Jennifer Doan and Darby Doan of Haltom & Doan and Charles Schwartz, Noelle Reed, Daniel DeVito, Anthony Sammi, Suellen Perry, Zachary Newman and Andrew Gish of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

DataTreasury’s counsel was Nelson Roach, Derek Gilliland, Cary Patterson, Brady Paddock, Benjamin King, Edward Chin, Kirk Voss, Robert Winn Cutler, Christian Hurt and Ross Leonoudakis of Nix, Patterson & Roach, L.L.P. and Joe Kendall and Karl Rupp of Kendall Law Group, LLP.

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