Omnitracs has filed a motion for a retrial after a federal jury found competitor Motive not guilty of copyright infringement.
The fleet tech provider sued Motive in October 2023 alleging it violated several patents related to fleet management systems and technologies. After a nearly two-year legal fight, the jury delivered a unanimous verdict finding Motive not guilty of these charges on April 25.
On Thursday, Omnitracs filed a 33-page motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claiming that Motive’s conduct during the original trial was “prejudiced.”
“In lieu of actual non-infringement evidence, Motive relied on a host of improper and irrelevant assertions designed to prejudice the jury against Omnitracs,” the motion obtained by FreightWaves stated. “When cross examining Omnitracs’ technical expert, for instance, Motive lobbed an accusation that Omnitracs (and its witness) were racially and religiously insensitive for not explaining that Motive’s co-founder allegedly used an American-sounding email alias to avoid discrimination from truck drivers against Muslim[s].”
“There may not be a more prejudicial statement to make to a jury in the Northern District of California, particularly when one of the jurors was born and raised in and wore a head scarf every day of trial,” the statement continued. “What’s more, Motive’s accusations were not supported by the record and were not substantiated by any later witness.”
In addition to religious and racial insinuations, Omnitracs alleged that Motive violated court orders regarding the disclosure of their legal investigation.
“Motive followed up these accusations by repeatedly violating this Court’s MIL [motion in limine] order prohibiting references to the alleged legal investigation that Motive conducted but withheld from discovery, in addition to numerous other improper arguments,” the motion stated. “Second, the highly unusual split verdict form — and the language the Court used in explaining the verdict form — severely and unfairly prejudiced Omnitracs by suggesting that the Court believed Omnitracs’ liability case was deficient.”
Omnitracs contended that these actions prevented a fair trial.
“This behavior, combined with Motive’s seizure of the Court’s bifurcated verdict form to give the jury a ‘everyone-gets-to-go-home’ early option, guaranteed that this case would not be decided on the evidence presented,” the motion stated.
Presiding U.S. Judge Rita Lin is expected to respond to the proposed order from Omnitracs by Thursday.
Motive told FreightWaves in an emailed statement that it stands behind the jury’s verdict and statements provided in its initial news release on the matter.
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