Practices

Litigation

Intellectual Property Litigation

We have been called upon by major international corporations, local technology corporations, law firms, and small family-run businesses to obtain immediate protection from their competitors’ patent, copyright, and trademark infringement, as well as from misuse of their trade secrets. In our antitrust practice representing retail pharmacy chains against prescription drug manufacturers, we often address complex issues of patent law. Because of our reputation for litigation excellence, we have been routinely engaged by patent law firms to represent their clients at trial. 

We served as lead trial counsel for one of the world’s leading pediatric hospitals and research institutions and four of its researcher-scientists in a high-profile lawsuit brought by the researchers’ former employer, which sought to enjoin the individual defendants from conducting any medical research at all. The case bristled with complex factual and legal issues, including an extensive inquiry into foreign law; cutting-edge genotyping technology; the analysis of computerized information and systems; the examination of restrictive employment covenants under state, federal, and foreign law; and the application of the term “competition” to new technologies, to scientific research, and to the work of universities and other nonprofit research entities. In 2007, after the hearing and post-hearing briefing were complete but before the Court issued a ruling, the parties reached a confidential settlement.  

Other recent intellectual property cases include:  

  • Representing a business liability insurer against a policyholder that argued that daily emails to approximately 300 individuals containing copyrighted news articles constituted “advertisements” under the terms of the policy, thus entitling it to coverage. The court concluded that the publication was neither sufficiently widespread nor public enough to be deemed an “advertisement” and granted summary judgment to our client; 
  • After obtaining a temporary restraining order enjoining our clients’ competitor from copying the source code, screen displays, and printed circuit board design of our clients’ automotive transponder key devices and from importing any infringing devices, we successfully negotiated the terms of a stipulated permanent injunction and confidential settlement agreement protecting our clients’ intellectual property rights; 
  • Representing the plaintiff, a leading interdealer bond broker, against its competitor in a patent infringement lawsuit involving our client’s patent on an electronic trading system; 
  • Handling coverage matters relating to hospitals in several cities in which the insureds were being sued for antitrust conspiracies to depress nursing wages; 
  • Successfully defending a snowplow manufacturer against claims of patent infringement; 
  • Successfully opposing a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in a case alleging misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information; 
  • Serving as co-counsel in patent litigation, including a case arising out of beta-hydroxy seal application patents and a case arising out of telephony patents.

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