patent tides turning?
Alas - been too long, old blog. And I see I have a backlog of 174 partially written entries. Anyway, just a brief mention of a very interesting decision reported by The Denver Post about a rather unusual turn of events in a patent infringement case:
A federal judge recently got so infuriated by the conduct of two highly regarded trial attorneys that he overturned a jury's $51 million verdict, then ordered the lawyers to pay the fees and costs of the opposing lawyers, a sum that could total several million dollars.
U.S. District Senior Judge Richard P. Matsch sanctioned attorneys Terrance McMahon and Vera Elson of the firm McDermott, Will and Emery, of Chicago and San Francisco, for "cavalier and abusive" misconduct and for having a "what can I get away with?" attitude during a 13-day patent infringement trial in Denver.
Not surprisingly the decision is the subject of much comment on the interwebs, many wondering if this marks the turning point in patent litigation by so-called patent trolls in the US. Still working on finding the judgement itself.
Update - someone posted the decision on slashdot. Would read it but alas drafting to do...
related: