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Yar Chaikovsky Named “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer
Palo Alto – Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that
On September 24, 2018, the litigation finally concluded when U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark ordered IV to reimburse Trend Micro for its legal fees in the amount of $444,051. This case represented a rare instance of Judge Stark finding a case “exceptional” under the standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court in Octane Fitness LLC v. Icon Health & Fitness Inc. for fee shifting in patent litigation.
Intellectual Ventures initially sued Trend Micro in 2010 seeking approximately $150 million in damages for infringing patents ’050, which describes methods of screening emails and other data files for unwanted content, and ’142, which describes an “automated post office” method of analyzing email to filter unsafe messages. IV also sued other security software companies, including Symantec, McAfee, and Check Point. Despite IV winning a trial against rival security software company Symantec and obtaining settlements from rivals McAfee and Check Point, Trend Micro ultimately paid no damages without a trial after Judge Stark granted summary judgment, ruling that the patents asserted by IV are unpatentable under Section 101 of the Patent Act and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice decision, which held that abstract ideas implemented using a computer cannot be patented. The summary judgment was later affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Federal Circuit denied IV’s request for en banc review of its opinion affirming invalidity on § 101 grounds of two patents. Chaikovsky argued the appeal on behalf of Trend Micro and Symantec, which faced damages greater than $500 million. IV declined to seek Supreme Court review.
During the course of the litigation for Trend Micro, Chaikovsky and his team were recognized by The National Law Journal in “Winning Litigators,” the Daily Journal as one of California’s Top Intellectual Property Lawyers, and by Law360 as a Technology MVP and as a “Legal Lion.”
Yar Chaikovsky led the Paul Hastings team for Trend Micro, which also included
At Paul Hastings, our purpose is clear — to help our clients and people navigate new paths to growth. With a strong presence throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the U.S., Paul Hastings is recognized as one of the world’s most innovative global law firms.
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