Patent Litigation

Experienced legal counsel when patent infringement leads to litigation.

At some point the products or processes of other companies will infringe your patent rights. Or, regardless of whether or not you own patents, others may assert that the conduct of your business conflicts with their patent rights.

When your patent rights are violated, or when your business is threatened by the patent rights of others, DRM’s patent litigators have the technical, legal and project management skills required to achieve an efficient, strategic and cost-effective resolution. DRM’s patent attorneys have technical experience in diverse areas such as: software, web-based systems and products, microelectronics, mechanical systems and medical devices. This translates to efficiency for our clients because we can get up to speed quickly and efficiently in virtually any technical area. Our litigation team also includes patent prosecutors who have a deep understanding of patent office processes, post-grant proceedings, patent laws and rules, which allows us to quickly identify the most appropriate legal strategy to help clients achieve their business goals through the litigation process.

To learn more about DRM’s patent litigation practice, please contact Thomas Kohler.

DRM’s collaborative approach to legal project management helps keep your patent litigation on the right track.

Our approach to legal project management starts with assembling the right team for your particular patent litigation matter. Typically, we work in small, consistently staffed teams where the senior, most experienced attorneys have complete knowledge of all issues in the case. Armed with this knowledge, our senior litigators can make fully informed, strategic decisions based on firsthand knowledge of the facts, technology and expert opinions. We then manage the workflow utilizing our cutting-edge project management tools to allocate resources appropriately and monitor progress against the budget, while keeping you informed and involved in the key decisions that could affect both the legal and monetary outcome of your matter. At DRM, our flexibility and cost structure allow our most experienced IP attorneys to be deeply involved in all aspects of your case, thereby key information is not filtered first through less experienced or even newly admitted attorneys. See our Client Bill of Rights for more detail.

At DRM, we craft our patent litigation strategy based on your business objectives and your budget.

For many companies, particularly smaller and mid-sized companies, any patent litigation is potentially a “bet-the-company” matter. If you find yourself in this situation, you need a legal partner who can help you understand the risks, develop a plan to manage those risks, assist you in evaluating your odds for success and evaluate potential returns. At DRM, we work with clients to develop a strategic approach appropriate to the business considerations at issue. Then, we develop a budget, task-by-task, iterating with clients as the budget is built. Because our billing systems talk to our budgeting systems in real time, we know where we are with regard to the budget throughout your litigation. And, we communicate that with you to minimize the potential for surprises along the way. If necessary, together we’ll decide if the best choice is to eliminate certain tasks, increase the budget or both.

If your patent litigation will take you to Federal court in Vermont, DRM should be on your short list, but we also serve clients throughout northern New England, the U.S. and even globally. Our attorneys are admitted – and have litigated – in courts across the country, including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Texas, and Washington.

Recent Patent Litigation Accomplishments

Often, the most successful litigations never make it to trial, with the settlements being highly confidential. Still, we can share a few examples that demonstrate how our approach to managing patent litigation helped these clients accomplish their objectives.

• A Canadian industrial manufacturing firm had been sued for patent infringement in the U.S., but as their case progressed, the litigation costs were spiraling out of control. We worked closely with our client to make sure we had a thorough understanding of the scope of the matter and the impact it would have on their business. Then, we collaborated with them to develop a fixed-fee schedule to complete fact discovery, conduct expert discovery, pre-trial, and trial that satisfied their business objectives – from a legal and financial perspective. On the eve of the trial, on budget and on time, the case settled favorably for our client.
• This case is also of particular note for its international aspect: the plaintiff sought deposition of an employee of our client’s related foreign corporation in Europe. By initially requiring the plaintiff to pursue the deposition through the Hague convention, we were subsequently able to negotiate strict time, location, and subject matter limits to minimize risks and impact of the deposition. DRM attorneys applied their knowledge of and experience with the Hague Convention on Taking of Evidence Abroad, plus their understanding of local consular restrictions on foreign depositions to our client’s advantage to effectively limit plaintiff’s access to a potentially key witness.
• A New England-based consumer electronics company with a primary source of revenue based on a flagship product in the U.S. got wind of an announcement of market entry from a China/Internet-based, low-cost competitor. Because DRM had already obtained U.S. and foreign patents on products for this particular client, we were immediately engaged. To protect our client’s interest, we quickly filed a U.S. claim, initiating an investigation in China for possible Chinese customs export freeze before the competitor could even build up significant pre-launch inventory. We then obtained early jurisdictional discovery and took the deposition of the competitor’s CEO in Hong Kong. Shortly following the deposition, the competitor asked for a settlement and the case resolved with a world-wide license that protects our client’s key market position for its flagship product in the U.S., and allows for sales of other, non-competitive infringing products with royalty payments in the U.S., Europe and Asia. None of this would have been possible without the knowledge and experience to act quickly and decisively, and to formulate and effect worldwide enforcement and licensing strategies.