McDermott's Intellectual Property Department Secures Five Patent Jury Wins by Mid-Year 2008
SILICON VALLEY (August 13, 2008) — McDermott Will & Emery is delighted to announce that the Intellectual Property, Media & Technology Department has secured five substantial patent wins for its clients as of mid-year 2008. Favorable jury verdicts were awarded to McDermott clients Akamai Technologies, Blackboard Inc., Dell Inc., Extreme Networks, Inc. and Linear Technology.
Trial teams were led by McDermott partners Terrence McMahon, Sarah Chapin Columbia, Joel Freed and Fay Morisseau.
"Winning five jury verdicts in five months time is a momentous accomplishment not seen by many firms. Interestingly, there were five separate trial teams pursuing separate cases before five district courts across the country and involved four separate lead trial lawyers," commented Terrence McMahon, head of McDermott's global Intellectual Property, Media & Technology Department. "These victories, which are a result of Firm-wide collaborations, make us all proud of the work and service we are providing and the success we are achieving."
Notable outcomes from these patent trials include:
• In February, McDermott successfully represented plaintiff patent owner, Blackboard Inc., with Fay Morisseau as lead, in a jury trial for a patent infringement case brought against Desire2Learn Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. McDermott obtained a multi-million dollar judgment and injunction against Desire2Learn, Inc. The McDermott team also won a separate bench trial accusing the Blackboard inventors of inequitable conduct.
• In February, McDermott partner Sarah Columbia acted as co-lead trial counsel for Akamai Technologies Inc. in a three week jury trial before the District of Massachusetts in a patent infringement case involving delivery of content over the internet resulting in complete victory for our client on all counts and a jury award of over $45 million in past damages.
• In April, Dell Inc. received a favorable resolution in a patent infringement lawsuit brought by Lucent Technologies Inc. in the U.S. District Court in San Diego. After a five week trial with Joel Freed as Dell's lead, a jury found that Dell did not infringe two of three patents at issue and Dell's liability for the third patent was just a fraction of the damages initially sought by Lucent.
• In May, McDermott, with Terrence McMahon as lead, obtained a favorable jury verdict, awarding a complete victory to Firm client Extreme Networks, Inc. against competitor Enterasys Networks, Inc. in the Western District of Wisconsin. Enterasys Networks' patent claims were dismissed by summary judgment.
• In July, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware awarded Linear Technology, with Joel Freed as lead, a complete victory in its patent infringement claim against Monolithic Power Systems. The jury found that Monolithic infringed all nine asserted claims of two Linear patents.
With five jury wins in the first half of the year, McDermott proves to be the go-to firm for patent litigation. The Firm has consistently ranked as one of the most active patent litigation firms in the United States (IP Law & Business, July 2008), and has been recognized as one of the most active firms before the International Trade Commission (ITC) (IP Law & Business, June 2008).
McDermott's Intellectual Property, Media & Technology Department has one of the largest concentrations of patent, trademark and copyright prosecution, licensing and litigation services worldwide. The Firm's Intellectual Property Department is recognized for its trial, ITC and appellate experience and clients describe the Firm as "one of the most complete IP groups around…[with] the firepower to handle the most complex IP issues" (Chambers USA).
