Overview
SILICON VALLEY (December 17, 2015) — On December 14, 2015, international law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP received a Final Written Decision in three inter partes review (“IPR”) proceedings in favor of Firm client, Diablo Technologies Inc. (“Diablo”). The decision from the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (“PTAB”) was a complete victory for McDermott in its IPR representation of Diablo and is the continuation of McDermott’s success on behalf of Diablo in the ongoing high-stakes intellectual property battle with former development partner, Netlist, Inc.
Netlist, a manufacturer of memory modules, previously accused Diablo, a manufacturer of semiconductor chips, of infringing on two patents in a case currently pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. In April, Judge Yvonne Gonzales-Rogers stayed the patent case pending the resolution of the IPR proceedings at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
At the IPR proceedings, Diablo challenged the validity of the asserted Netlist patents, and the PTAB found that Diablo had shown by a preponderance of evidence that all challenged claims were unpatentable. “We are thrilled with the outcome of the IPR proceedings,” said McDermott’s Fabio Marino. “We believe that our complete victory at the PTAB is a good indicator of the strength of Diablo’s case in the Northern District of California.” The McDermott team, led by Fabio Marino, included fellow Silicon Valley IP litigator Barrington Dyer and two of the Firm’s IP litigators in DC, Bernie Knight and Alexander Ott.
McDermott’s complete IPR success for Diablo comes on the heels of the Firm’s dramatic victory in March, where a jury exonerated Diablo from Netlist’s accusations of trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract, and incorrect inventorship.
With more than 155 lawyers and patent agents around the world, McDermott’s Intellectual Property practice is renowned for its broad trial, appellate, prosecution and transaction experience. Members of the practice hold degrees in a wide variety of technical fields and are uniquely capable of handling intellectual property matters in virtually every technical or scientific discipline. Some 120 members of McDermott’s intellectual property team hold technical and/or scientific degrees and nearly 100 are registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). McDermott’s Intellectual Property practice includes numerous lawyers with valuable industry experience as well as former USPTO examiners and petition specialists.
About McDermott
McDermott Will & Emery is a premier international law firm with a diversified business practice. Numbering more than 1,000 lawyers, we have offices in Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. Further extending our reach into Asia, we have a strategic alliance with MWE China Law Offices in Shanghai.
