Motion Offense v. Dropbox: a $35.7 million patent demand defeated at trial

The dispute began as a declaratory-judgment action Dropbox filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (Dropbox, Inc. v. Motion Offense, LLC, No. 1:19-cv-01521) in 2019, and proceeded as infringement litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division, before Judge Alan Albright (lead case No. 6:20-cv-00251, with related case No. 6:21-cv-00758). Motion Offense, a patent-assertion entity, asserted four patents by inventor Robert Paul Morris — U.S. Patent Nos. 10,013,158; 10,021,052; 10,587,548; and 11,044,215 — directed to sharing data objects in a data store, and accused Dropbox features including file sharing and Smart Sync.

After a five-day trial in May 2023, the jury returned a verdict for Dropbox: it found that Dropbox did not infringe and that all four asserted patents were invalid, rejecting Motion Offense's claimed September 2012 priority date. Motion Offense had sought roughly $35.7 million in damages.

The court entered final judgment in Dropbox's favor on 29 August 2024. Dropbox also pursued an inter partes review at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (IPR2024-00286); the precise claim-level outcome of that proceeding is not fully confirmed here, but it did not disturb the defense win at trial.