Intellectual Property a Word About This List Being a Paid Observer of the Legal Industry Brings Us a Lot of Enrich- Her Work Can Be Anywhere
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Supplement to the Los Angeles and San Francisco APRIL 6, 2011 Intellectual Property A Word About this List Being a paid observer of the legal industry brings us a lot of enrich- her work can be anywhere. Many of the litigators practice in the ing moments. But the absolute best part about our job is watching Eastern District of Texas but they also have cases in other federal brilliant people facilitate creative ideas so that they blossom into real districts and before the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, solutions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the intellectual prop- D.C. Portfolio managers work for companies in every corner of the erty arena, in which lawyers draft and defend patents, copyrights globe. and trademarks for medical cures, technological innovations and, of The most important criterion for making the list is the impact of course, great entertainment. the work. How has this work affected an industry or society? Did This is the fourth year the Daily Journal has published a Top it create or save jobs? Did it help bring to market a cure? Save a Intellectual Property Lawyers list. In putting it together, editors read technological innovation? hundreds of nominations from lawyers. We also consult Daily Journal The result is a lively mix of people doing fascinating work. There reporters who cover this field and read our coverage of the practice. are tech gurus, science nerds and glitzy Hollywood folks. Read on. To qualify, the lawyer must be based in California but his or Get to know them. — The Editors 75 LEADING IP LITIGATORS KEVIN G. MCBRIDE Jones Day Los Angeles Patent McBride, the Los Angeles office coordinator of Jones Day’s IP Practice, has taken a leading role in trying and settling patent infringement litigation filed against two major clients, Vizio Inc. and The DirecTV Group Inc. Irvine-based Vizio, which makes digital television sets, has battled patent litigation claims against several opponents on multiple fronts. Funai Electric Co. sued Vizio in the Central District of California for infringing multiple patents, and filed complaints in the Northern District of California and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Funai won an exclusion order in the ITC that, if applied, would have blocked the import of most of Vizio’s televisions into the United States, McBride said. But the Jones Day team representing Vizio won an order from an attorney with the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection concluding that the company’s redesigned televisions did not infringe Japan-based Funai’s patent. In May 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sided with Vizio. At that point, McBride ran settlement negotiations, hoping to reach a deal that would protect the company from future dangers. “They [negotiations] were complicated and very important for Vizio to reach agreement with a major holder of patents on digital televisions, to get some peace so they could compete in the marketplace,” McBride said. A settlement was reached in June. “We did those almost exclusively by phone, which is amazing,” he added. McBride also is leading litigation teams defending Vizio against patent infringement claims in California and Texas filed by LSI Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. McBride also was a member of the Jones Day legal team that defended El Segundo-based satellite television provider DirecTV Group Inc. in a long-running patent infringement complaint filed by Finisar Corp. the Federal Circuit affirmed a Texas judge’s ruling that Finisar’s patents were invalid, a reversal of fortune from a $100 million judgment in the plaintiff’s favor in 2008. He represents DirecTV in several other lawsuits . — Craig Anderson Reprinted for web use with permission from the Daily Journal. ©2011 Daily Journal Corporation. All rights reserved. Reprinted by Scoop ReprintSource 1-800-767-3263..