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ANALYSIS: Patent profits.
(From The Lawyer)
US law firms are making big money by taking David and Goliath patent suits on a no-win, no-fee basis. But the US Supreme Court could be about to move the goalposts. By Ben Moshinsky
If you strolled into your firm with a cheque for $200m (GBP111.9m), your managing partner would probably single you out for a little praise come the year-end. Thanks to the recent raft of big paydays for firms willing to take cases on a contingency basis, notably in the area of so- called 'patent troll', a number of lawyers have become familiar with that feeling.
James Wallace, a patent litigator at US firm Wiley Rein & Fielding, is one such. He handled the trial work for software company NTP in its dispute with BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM). Wallace did handled on a contingency basis, getting a cut of the eventual settlement.
RIM settled the dispute in March with a $612.5m (GBP343.7m) pay-off. Sources at the time reported that Don Stout, a partner at Virginia law firm Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus and co-founder of NTP, reportedly gave Wallace a cut of around a third of the settlement.
"We didn't have the money to pay for it up front, so we went for a contingency fee consultation," Stout says. "Wiley Rein earned every penny of it. Someone who's going to put the hours in on a contingency basis is taking a gamble."
Now, however, these big paydays look to be under threat and patent trolls are back in the spotlight thanks to MercExchange's ongoing Supreme Court battle with online auction site eBay. In front of the Supreme Court panel of judges last month, eBay's counsel, Carter Phillips of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, called MercExchange a patent troll.
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