Halliburton loses bid to overturn $98.1 million verdict

Halliburton Co., the world's largest provider of oilfield services, lost a U.S. Supreme Court appeal of a $98.1 million jury award it was told to pay rival BJ Services Co. in a patent dispute.

BJ Services claimed Houston-based Halliburton infringed a patent for a method of hydraulic fracturing that pumps liquid into the ground at high pressure to break open underground formations so more oil can be extracted. The high court refused to hear Halliburton's argument that one issue in the April 2002 trial should have been decided by the judge, not the jury.

Under a lower court decision upholding the verdict, ``the same patent language will be subject to different interpretations by different juries in different infringement actions,'' Halliburton's lawyers said in court papers filed in Washington.

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Halliburton argued at trial that BJ Services's patent was invalid because one of its terms wasn't precise enough to spell out the scope of the claimed invention. The jury decided against Halliburton on that question. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in August upheld the jury's finding that the patent was valid and was infringed by Halliburton.

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=2190

comment: Ha! Finally one case will not get the chance to go to the Supremes and get Scalia's "Quack, Quack" review.

stealing is bad, didn't your mama give you any home training?

Who cares...

"comment: Ha! Finally one case will not get the chance to go to the Supremes and get Scalia's "Quack, Quack" review."

The article makes it sound like the Supreme Court did hear this case and upheld the lower courts ruling.