Joint Legal Team Secures Victory for Juno Online Services
LOS ANGELES — A joint team of patent and trial attorneys from the law firms of Kenyon & Kenyon and McDermott Will & Emery won a significant legal victory on behalf of Juno Online Services, Inc. on April 12, 2001, when a Los Angeles federal court judge dissolved a temporary restraining order (TRO) obtained by competitor NetZero, Inc. earlier this year.
The TRO, which was issued on January 5, 2001, had prevented Juno from displaying third-party advertisements on its Juno Guideä floating ad banner. Judge Stephen V. Wilson rejected NetZero’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have extended both the scope and the duration of the TRO through trial. With the TRO restrictions lifted, Juno may now resume selling advertising for display on the Juno Guide.
Juno’s litigation team is headed by Philip J. McCabe, a partner with intellectual property law firm Kenyon & Kenyon (San Jose), and Allan L. Schare, a trial partner in the Los Angeles office of the international law firm McDermott Will & Emery. McCabe was assisted by San Jose partner John R. Kenny and associate Mark M. Supko of Kenyon's Washington, D.C. office. Schare called upon associate Julie J. Heimark for assistance at McDermott. Juno's in-house legal staff, including General Counsel Richard Buchband, Associate General Counsel Robert Sporn and Assistant General Counsel Alice Lin Geene, worked closely with Kenyon and McDermott on Juno's defense of this case.
According to McCabe, "NetZero's patent simply did not cover Juno's Internet advertising services. We're glad the Court recognized the fundamental differences between Juno's network architecture and the architecture described in the patent, and denied the preliminary injunction."
Schare added, "Juno is gratified with Judge Wilson's decision to dissolve the TRO and to deny NetZero's request for a preliminary injunction. Based on the Court's ruling, we are confident that this case will be fully resolved in Juno's favor on summary judgment or at trial later this year."
