1) Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property
Litigation
2) Intellectual Property
Practice Section Leader
Jack S. Barufka
+1.703.770.7712
jack.barufka@pillsburylaw.com
For more information about our
Intellectual Property p­­
ractice, please
visit us at www.pillsburylaw.com.
Attorney Advertising. Results depend on a number of factors unique
to each matter. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
1540 Broadway | New York, NY 10036 | 877.323.4171
3) “ ictory at any cost”
V
is not the only choice.
When your company is facing an intellectual
property challenge that puts brands or product
lines at risk, you select the legal team most
likely to achieve the results you seek: victory,
on your terms. Pillsbury’s Intellectual Property
Litigation team does more than just win—we
resolve disputes rapidly and cost-­ ffectively.
e
Working with Pillsbury means working with
litigators whose practices are focused on IP,
and who are selected for your case because
­
they know your industry, your technology and
­
the courts. The team you hire is the team that
will handle your case from the first meeting to
­
the final disposition.
A seasoned, dedicated legal team focused on
early victory. It is a winning approach.
The following cases represent just some
of the many recent successes Pillsbury’s IP
Litigation team has achieved for our clients.
4) “The Court reemphasizes the fact that Plaintiff initiated this suit pursuing
an inflated claim for damages which required a vigorous defense.
The Court also notes that Defendant was completely successful, and
Defendant’s counsel could not have achieved a better result for
their client…
”
U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth A. Marra, in his award of more than $1 million in attorneys’ fees to Pillsbury’s client
Atlas Copco
5) Atlas Copco:
Securing Attorneys’ Fees
for the Client and Praise
from the Judge
Company:
Atlas Copco
Industry:
Tools and machinery
Areas of Law:
Patent infringement, breach of contract,
­appellate
Venues:
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
Florida, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit
Result:
Capped a successful defense with a sevenfigure attorneys’ fees award
Pillsbury IP attorneys have been representing Atlas Copco, a global tool and equipment company, for nearly a decade in
one case with more than $200 million in damages at stake. Over the years, Pillsbury’s lawyers have led Atlas Copco to
repeated victories, defeating claims on summary judgment, in a jury trial and in a subsequent appeal to the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Atlas Copco then sought to recover its costs and attorneys’ fees. The company’s original contract awarded “legal costs
and expenses” to the victor in any breach-of-contract litigation. A district court awarded the company expenses that
excluded attorneys’ fees, but Pillsbury helped Atlas Copco win the attorneys’ fees issue on appeal at the Federal Circuit.
When the case returned to that district court, the judge noted Pillsbury’s efficiency and effectiveness as he awarded
$1 million in attorneys’ fees to Atlas Copco. The company’s General Counsel of Operations and Vice President
commented, “Very rarely have we been able to get any legal fees and costs back in litigation in the U.S., and we see
this as almost ground-breaking.
”
6) “After a trial, the Court of Chancery ruled substantially in favor of CA,
awarded CA $2.25 million in fees and costs, and enjoined Ingres from
prosecuting the California Action…”
“We find no merit to Ingres’ appeal and affirm on the basis of and for the
reasons assigned by the Court…”
Justice Henry duPont Ridgely, Delaware Supreme Court
7) CA Technologies:
Victory at Trial and on Appeal in
$60+ Million Licensing Dispute
Company:
CA Technologies (formerly CA Inc.)
Industry:
Enterprise software
Areas of Law:
Software license, open-source software
litigation
Venues:
Delaware Supreme Court, Delaware Chancery
Court
Result:
Affirmed a lower court decision that
rejected a $60 million claim against CA and
instead awarded $2 million in fees and costs
to our client
At stake in CA Inc. v. Ingres Corp. were substantial contractual, financial and customer relationships—both for CA, a
$4.3 billion public company, and Ingres, a software company to which CA spun off its open-source Ingres database in
2005. License and support issues arose when Ingres failed to honor obligations to support CA customers who were
using the database. Ingres also claimed that its license with CA did not cover certain instances where its database was
embedded in CA products. Ingres sued CA in California before CA’s Pillsbury-led litigation team filed suit in Delaware
seeking an expedited trial.
Pillsbury maneuvered through a series of motions on both coasts, large-scale e-discovery (an expedited review of a
700,000-document production), source code review, and 23 depositions (most compressed into two weeks), taking the
case from complaint to trial in just six months.
By trial, Ingres had upped its initial demand from $30 million to more than $60 million. But after hearing Pillsbury’s crossexaminations of Ingres’ witnesses, including a key witness whom Pillsbury had to cross-examine without deposing
beforehand, the Delaware Chancery Court’s 123-page opinion gave a definitive victory to CA, awarding nothing to
Ingres and instead ordering the plaintiff to pay CA’s attorneys’ fees and costs on one of the license issues. The Delaware
Supreme Court affirmed the decision in full on appeal.
8) “[Pillsbury] lawyers for Sirius used Spansion’s evidence against it, pointing
out that documents in the motion to amend showed that the products
were available before the company filed its complaint…”
Law360, October 11, 2010
9) SiriusXM Radio:
Speedily Disposing
of a Multimillion-Dollar
Infringement Allegation
Company:
SiriusXM Radio
Industry:
Satellite media
Area of Law:
Patent 337 Action
Venue:
U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)
Result:
Protected the client from potential liability as
a downstream user of an allegedly infringing
memory chip by getting SiriusXM dismissed
before they answered the complaint
Apple, Nokia and RIM were each targeted by flash-memory-component-maker Spansion Inc. in a patent infringement
case before the ITC involving Samsung flash memory chips. Spansion claimed that Samsung’s infringing chips
represented hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. The company’s strategy was to pursue redress from not only
Samsung, but consumer electronics companies that used Samsung flash memory.
But when Spansion tried to include Sirius in its list of infringing downstream users, Pillsbury identified significant
defects in the request for investigation and a later motion to amend. Responding to Pillsbury’s early motion, the ITC
administrative law judge ruled that Spansion failed to show the good cause necessary to amend its initial complaint. The
ruling effectively ended the case against Sirius.
10) “It was a wise use of resources. And now you can head to the Federal
Circuit directly...Well done.”
Magistrate Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte, U.S. District Court
11) Stanley Black & Decker:
Protecting Success
Company:
Stanley Black & Decker
(formerly The Stanley Works)
Industry:
Tools and construction equipment
Area of Law:
Patent litigation
Venues:
U.S. District Court for Arizona, U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Northern
District of California
Result:
Pillsbury helmed two significant patent
litigation wins for longtime client Stanley
Black & Decker
Richardson v. The Stanley Works
Zircon Corp. v. The Stanley Works
As the manufacturer of hundreds of popular products,
and the leading brand name in its field, longtime Pillsbury
client Stanley Black & Decker sees more patent challenges
than most companies. Pillsbury represented the company
in district court and appellate victories in Richardson v.
The Stanley Works.
In a dispute over software algorithms powering competing
stud finder products, Stanley rival Zircon sought an
injunction and damages for alleged infringement of a Zircon
patent. At issue was the method each company’s device
uses to compute numeric ratios, which the devices process
to detect stud beams.
The appellate review came after Pillsbury successfully
defended Stanley at trial against claims that the company’s
FuBar®—a popular 4-in-1 utility bar for prying, splitting,
board-bending and striking jobs—infringed the design patent
on the plaintiff’s “Stepclaw” multi-function tool. The lower
court found that any common features between the tools
were purely functional, and thus could not sustain a finding
of infringement under a design patent.
The Pillsbury team quickly identified a critical gap between
the Zircon patent and the separate, specific mathematical
process Stanley’s stud finders employ. The team then
filed for summary judgment of non-infringement, asking
the court to construe a single, but critical, patent claim
term with the aim of (1) negating the infringement claim,
(2) avoiding a jury trial, and (3) efficiently sparing Stanley from
the burden of further time and unnecessary legal expenses.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed
the lower court decision, marking a fundamental shift in
how functional aspects of design patents are evaluated in
infringement claims. For IP-sensitive companies in a host
of industries, Stanley’s victory points to the importance of
carefully analyzing the functional and ornamental aspects of
design patents as part of IP portfolio management.
The judgment was granted, effectively undercutting Zircon’s
arguments. Pillsbury’s successful strategy amounted to
what the court called “a wise use of resources.
”
12) “The appeals court said the U.S. International Trade Commission had
”
overstepped its bounds when it issued the ban against handset makers….
CIO/IDG News Service, October 14, 2008
13) AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, RIM:
Sparing a Trillion-Dollar
Industry from a Single
Supplier’s Dispute
Companies:
AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and RIM
Industry:
Telecommunications
Area of Law:
Patent 337 Action
Venue:
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Result:
Successfully appealed an ITC decision, establishing a new legal standard for downstream
companies caught in patent disputes
At issue in In re Kyocera Wireless v. International Trade Commission was a decision by the ITC that Bloomberg News
predicted could “cripple the entire mobile-phone industry. Acting on alleged patent infringement by the microchip
”
manufacturer Qualcomm, the ITC banned not only the import of Qualcomm chips, but also all “downstream products”
that incorporated the offending microchips.
The proposed ban would have impacted nearly all new mobile phones with 3G technology, hurting device manufacturers
and wireless service providers alike. Indeed, given the importance of the issues and the havoc a ban would have
caused, the exclusion order was stayed while the ITC’s decision was appealed to the Federal Circuit.
Pillsbury’s oral arguments on behalf of AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and RIM noted the fundamental unfairness of the ITC’s
decision to these companies, which had not been allowed to participate in any proceedings or present evidence to the
ITC about how the ban would affect them. Pillsbury also argued that the ITC had exceeded its authority. The Federal
Circuit agreed, effectively setting a new legal standard for downstream companies caught in patent disputes.
14) “Our Pillsbury attorneys assessed the challenge Fellowes was facing from a
Chinese competitor’s patent lawsuit and were confident that we could turn
the tables and win in court. And they did exactly that.”
Steve Carson, General Counsel of Fellowes, Inc.
15) Fellowes, Inc.:
Turning the Tables
in a High-Stakes
Battle
Company:
Fellowes, Inc.
Industry:
Personal paper shredders
Area of Law:
Patent infringement
Venues:
U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia
and Eastern District of Virginia
Result:
Won summary judgment of non-infringement by
our client and two patent infringement claims
against the competitor, including a jury verdict
of validity
Fellowes is the inventor of the personal shredder—and a global market leader in their manufacture. The company was
surprised, then, to be sued for infringement by a Taiwanese competitor that was using Fellowes’ technology in its own
shredders. The company turned to Pillsbury to defend it from the competitor’s patent claims, and to file its own patent
infringement suit against the competitor and its U.S. partner.
Pillsbury won an early summary judgment on behalf of Fellowes in the suit the competitor filed. This decision followed
a Markman hearing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a jurisdiction that rarely hears patent infringement
disputes. Though Fellowes’ motion for summary judgment of non-infringement had been denied twice, Pillsbury
persuaded the court to vacate and reverse its own prior rulings.
While winning at defense, Fellowes filed a separate patent infringement action in the Eastern District of Virginia, known
as the “rocket docket. There, Pillsbury proved the validity of two key Fellowes patents in a jury trial that found the
”
Taiwanese company guilty of infringement. The competition conceded infringement of one patent and the judge held
the other patent was infringed. With this victory, the competitor settled the cases and Fellowes got back to inventing
new features for personal shredders.
16) “With limited time to prepare and in the context of an aggressive
adversary, Pillsbury was able to achieve an excellent result for Clearwire
at the preliminary injunction phase of the litigation.”
Chuck Lobsenz, Senior Corporate Counsel/Director of Intellectual Property, Clearwire
17) Clearwire:
Free and CLEAR in
Trademark Dispute
Company:
Clearwire
Industry:
Wireless broadband
Area of Law:
Trademark infringement
Venue:
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District
of Virginia
Result:
Clearwire defeated Sony Ericsson’s request for
a preliminary injunction
After several months of use and having spent tens of millions of dollars to promote its CLEAR C trademark, Clearwire
was sued by Sony Ericsson in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia claiming the logo for the
CLEAR broadband product was confusingly similar to Sony Ericsson’s own logo. Given that it had been preparing
to file a complaint for several months, Sony Ericsson filed the complaint and immediately moved for a preliminary
injunction prohibiting Clearwire from using its CLEAR C mark anywhere in America—an injunction that would cost
Clearwire over $8 million to comply with. The Pillsbury team had 11 days to get up to speed on the case and file all of
Clearwire’s papers.
Though the court recognized that there was some similarity between the marks, it rejected the speculative nature of
Sony Ericsson’s argument and instead accepted Clearwire’s argument that the best proof of whether the marks were
confusingly similar was the real-world marketplace. Thus, Clearwire successfully argued that the lack of any real-world
confusion was determinative of whether there existed a likelihood of confusion between the two marks. The court also
accepted Clearwire’s argument that the harm to it in being enjoined was greater than any demonstrable harm to Sony
Ericsson by Clearwire’s use of its mark.
Based upon the evidence as established by Clearwire, the court denied Sony Ericsson’s request in its totality, allowing
Clearwire to use its CLEAR C mark on any and all of its products anywhere in America.
18) “With Pillsbury’s strategic approach to this litigation, we were able to turn
the tables, create downside risk for the Plaintiff and swiftly get these
baseless accusations dismissed.”
Laurence D. Hurwitz, General Counsel, Environmental Systems Products Holdings Inc.
19) Environmental Systems
Products Holdings Inc.:
How to Beat a “Patent Troll”
Company:
Environmental Systems Products Holdings Inc.
(ESP)
Industry:
Vehicle emissions testing equipment and
service
Area of Law:
Patent litigation
Venue:
U.S. District Court, Northern District of
California
Result:
Pillsbury obtained a dismissal with prejudice in
a “patent troll” case—before the initial case
management conference
Even baseless claims of patent infringement by a patent troll typically take more than a year and hundreds of thousands
of dollars or more to dispose of. Pillsbury client Environmental Systems Products Holdings Inc. faced such a suit
brought by a “business accelerator” called inBAC that had acquired rights to a patent originally granted to a research
arm of the Finnish government, VTT. While the patent being asserted against ESP referenced ESP’s own patents in the
background, the company nonetheless faced proceedings that often take a year or more and generate six- or sevenfigure expenses.
After verifying that the claim was indeed spurious, Pillsbury focused on pressing inBAC on all fronts, with an eye toward
creating leverage to secure a quick dismissal. Pillsbury employed a three-pronged strategy: bringing VTT into the case,
raising Rule 11 issues against inBAC’s counsel over the baseless suit and then using inBAC’s own evidence to support
a counterclaim against the inBAC CEO.
In the face of this aggressive response to the suit (and no doubt some pressure from the Finnish government), inBAC’s
counsel offered to dismiss the claims, with prejudice, provided that ESP drop all counterclaims and other claims (e.g.,
request for sanctions) that were made or could have been made—all before the initial case management conference.
20) “We turned to a trusted advisor in Pillsbury for its expertise and quality in
helping execute on CSR’s strategy…and they delivered.”
Adam R. Dolinko, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Cambridge Silicon Radio plc
21) Cambridge Silicon Radio:
Pillsbury Helps Execute
New GC’s Complex
Litigation Strategy
Company:
SiRF Technology, a subsidiary of Cambridge
Silicon Radio plc (CSR)
Industry:
GPS semiconductors
Areas of Law:
Patent litigation, patent reexamination
Venue:
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Result:
Pillsbury prepared and filed reexaminations,
including on patents previously held valid at the
ITC, and assisted in patent litigation. These efforts were successful and assisted in positioning the client for settling the overall dispute
between CSR and Broadcom.
In 2009, Cambridge, UK-based CSR plc acquired U.S.-based SiRF Technology, a leading global supplier of semiconductor
chips that detect GPS satellite signals in smart phones, automobiles and stand-alone navigation devices. At the time of
the acquisition, SiRF and its litigation counsel were defending against patent infringement allegations raised by Global
Locate, then a subsidiary of Broadcom, both at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in federal district court,
which had suffered numerous patent litigation losses against Broadcom, which risked a shutdown of the GPS business.
As part of CSR’s new General Counsel’s strategy to diffuse the results of a prior legal team’s efforts, Pillsbury was called
on to file Inter Partes Reexamination requests on most of the six Global Locate patents that had been found valid at
the ITC.
These Inter Partes Reexamination requests were filed in 2010, along with CSR asserting multiple patents in a variety of
jurisdictions, with Pillsbury having assisted on that front as well. All of the Inter Partes Reexamination requests filed by
Pillsbury were granted, and the USPTO continued to reject all of the claims that had been previously found valid at the
ITC, which along with the other ongoing lawsuits set the stage for a global settlement that was entered into in early 2011.
As a result of CSR’s new legal strategy as executed, and the settlement as negotiated by CSR, CSR’s enterprise value
increased more than 25 percent and its shares climbed 15 percent, or more than $150,000,000, on the day of the
announcement of the global settlement.
22) “I know that it is rare to have a product recalled from the market. The
Pillsbury team did an excellent job in gathering and presenting the facts to
secure such a result.”
Francesco Bellifemine, President, Tecnimed Srl.
23) Tecnimed:
Winning the Recall of a
Competitor’s Infringing
Thermometer
Company:
Tecnimed
Industry:
Medical electronics
Area of Law:
Trademark infringement
Venue:
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
New York
Result:
In a rare outcome for a trademark case,
Pillsbury secured a complete recall of a
competitor’s infringing product
Italian electronics manufacturer Tecnimed distributed its Thermofocus non-contact thermometer in the U.S. through
a distribution deal with U.S.-based Kidz-Med. Soon after that arrangement ended in a dispute and settlement,
Kidz-Med launched a competing product using what the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York would
later call “confusingly similar packaging.
”
Tecnimed selected Pillsbury to lead an aggressive response to Kidz-Med’s infringement. The IP Litigation team identified
what amounted to deliberate infringement by Kidz-Med, including copying promotional language and a physician’s
endorsement of the Tecnimed product, and using “Thermofocus” metatags on the Kidz-Med site.
After oral argument, the Pillsbury team secured not only an injunction on the infringing packaging, but a complete recall
of the competitor’s product from more than 1,000 retail outlets. In his decision, U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe
noted that a recall is an “extreme remedy” but one that was supported by Pillsbury’s convincing presentation of the
defendant’s bad faith, as well as Kidz-Med’s inability to pay damages because of insolvency.
24) Awards, Rankings and Recognition
• First Band in Intellectual Property,
Chambers USA, 2010
• #18 Top Trademark Firms, Intellectual
Property Today, 2009
• Top Listed in Intellectual Property,
Best Lawyers/U.S. News & World
Report survey, 2010
• #10 Top Trademark Firms in
Washington, DC, CTCorsearch, 2008
• Top 25 in Patent Prosecution,
Managing Intellectual Property, 2010
• Tier 4 in Patent Prosecution Utility &
Design Patents, Legal 500, 2010
• #1 Band—Intellectual Property
Group—Northern Virginia, Chambers
USA, 2009
• Top 7 among all AmLaw 100 firms
for filing the most patents on behalf
of the 300 largest corporate patent
holders, PatentBuddy, 2009
• #1 Regionally Ranked—IP Law—
Northern Virginia, Best Lawyers in
America, 2009
• #1 First Band Intellectual Property
Group—Northern Virginia, Chambers
USA, 2008
• #26 Top Patent Firms, Intellectual
Property Today, 2009
• #9 Top 200 Trademark Law Firms,
Trademark Insider Annual Report,
2008
• #11 Top 100 Trademark Firms (based
on number of USPTO applications
submitted during the fourth quarter of
2008), Trademark Insider, 2008
• 2009 Best Lawyers in America
named two Pillsbury IP partners
(one with Special Honors for being
ranked 25 years) and ranked Pillsbury
#1 in the Northern Virginia region.
Only approximately 2.4 percent of
practicing U.S. attorneys are selected
for this list
• In the 2008 Corporate Counsel survey
of in-house counsel of the Fortune
500, Pillsbury was designated as a
“Go-To Firm” for Intellectual Property
• 2008 PLC Which Lawyer? ranked our
Los Angeles and San Francisco/Silicon
Valley offices as well as one IP: Life
Sciences partner as “Recommended”
• 2008 Chambers USA ranked our
Northern Virginia office’s IP practice
and five lawyers, including one
“Senior Statesman. One California
”
partner was ranked for Life Sciences:
IP/Patent Litigation
• June 2007 Guide to the World’s
Leading Patent Law Practitioners
named a Pillsbury partner as one
of the pre-eminent patent law
practitioners
• In 2007 CTCorsearch data showed
,
that a Pillsbury IP lawyer filed more
trademark applications for clients than
any other lawyer in Washington, DC
• 2006 IP Law & Business’ annual
survey of in-house counsel listed
Pillsbury among the “Top IP Firms”
corporate America calls on for IP help
25) Representative IP Practice Clients
Accuride International Inc.
Activision Blizzard, Inc.
AOL Inc.
Aquaria, Inc.
Arysta LifeScience Corporation
ASML
AT&T Mobility LLC
Atlas Copco USA
Bank of New York Mellon
Bass Pro Shops
Bell Helicopter
Biogen Idec, Inc.
Bridgestone Corporation
CA Technologies
Camp Scandinavia AB
Capcom Co., Ltd.
Chevron Corporation
Clearwire Corporation
Comarco Wireless Technologies, Inc.
Del Monte Foods
Environmental Systems Products
Holdings Inc.
Evonik Degussa GmbH
Fellowes, Inc.
Fred Meyer, Inc.
Novell, Inc.
Open Text Corporation
Philips Electronics
Playdom, Inc.
IBM
Pressure Products Medical
Supplies Inc.
In-N-Out Burger
Raytheon Company
Intel Corporation
Saint-Gobain S.A.
Invenda Corp.
SiriusXM Radio
Juicy Couture
Stanley Black & Decker
Kate Spade LLC
Sunrise R&D Holdings, LLC
The Kroger Co.
Suzuye & Suzuye
La Jolla Institute for Allergy &
Immunology
Time Warner Cable
Liz Claiborne Inc.
Magna International Inc.
Medtronic, Inc.
MicroStrategy, Inc.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Morgan Stanley
NIKE, Inc.
Toray Industries, Inc.
Toshiba Corporation
UBS AG
University of Kansas
The Walt Disney Company
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
Xerox Corporation
26) Pillsbury has handled patent and trademark litigation since 1893. Now, with
more than 90 IP practitioners firmwide, Pillsbury advises clients on developing
­
s
­ uccessful and comprehensive IP strategies by protecting, managing, asserting,
­
d
­ efending and ­everaging their IP assets. The IP team spans a number of offices
l
and countries, with team members in Northern Virginia, San Francisco, Silicon
Valley, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington, DC, New York, San Diego, Sacramento,
Tokyo and London. Domestically, Pillsbury has advocated for clients in 77 of
the 94 U.S. district courts, as well as before the ITC in Section 337 cases,
the International Chamber of Commerce and the World Intellectual Property
Organization. Pillsbury’s IP lawyers have a wide range of advanced scientific
and technical degrees in areas including electrical and mechanical engineering,
­
c
­ hemistry, biology, physics and a number of other technical disciplines.
Offices
New York
Washington, DC
Northern Virginia
Houston
Los Angeles
Orange County
Sacramento
San Diego
San Diego North County
San Francisco
Silicon Valley
Abu Dhabi
London
Shanghai
Tokyo
27)
28) © 2012 Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. All rights reserved.
www.pillsburylaw.com