Intellectual Property Litigation

Wildman Harrold has substantial experience in the federal and state courts prosecuting and defending claims involving patent infringement, trademark infringement; copyright infringement; misappropriation of trade secrets; licensing disputes; breach of employment, confidential, non-compete, and non-disclosure agreements; unfair trade practices; and declaratory judgments. The group has handled a large number of patent-related disputes, including representation of plaintiffs and defendants in trials and appeals of cases involving patent infringement, fraud on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, declaration of patent invalidity, interference proceedings, and patent licensing disputes. We also practice extensively before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, representing clients in connection with oppositions, cancellations, interferences, and appeals.

• Represented a medical device company in an opposition proceeding before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board when a third party attempted to register a trademark that would have been confusingly similar to our client’s trademarks. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board sustained the opposition and refused the register the mark.
• Successful defense of client in an intellectual property license dispute before a three-member arbitration panel when the exclusive licensee attempted to prove that it had the right to use much of the technology it licensed from our client for a zero royalty and to sue third parties for infringement of the licensed patent. The panel ruled in our client’s favor. The award paved the way to a multi-million dollar settlement of our client’s pending patent infringement case against an industry-leading manufacturer of gasoline dispensing products. 
• Successfully prosecuted a patent infringement case, representing a leading manufacturer of consumer cleaning products, through trial and appeal, in which the Federal Circuit affirmed the District Court’s infringement finding. The case involved an invention directed to a locking mechanism for push brooms. 
• Represented client when computers were stolen from their healthcare provider with our client’s employee database of health information, personal credit cards and other personal information. We subsequently identified both the HIPAA exposure and the potential employee legal action(s). When the vendor was forced to meet ISO 17799 and corporate standards, we prepared and oversaw E&Y ISO 17799 security audit and evaluated compensating controls; negotiated changes and remediation, and rewrote security provisions for vendor contracts. 
• Defended the world’s largest industrial water treatment company in a patent infringement case involving a chemical additive and method for manufacturing paper. The case resulted in a favorable settlement after the District Court granted our client’s request for a mistrial. 
• Successfully prosecuted a trade secrets case involving misappropriation of product concepts later patented by the defendant. The jury returned a verdict in our client’s favor, affirmed in a precedent-setting opinion from the Seventh Circuit.