True to its calling as a trial firm, Willenken successfully defended its client, ARM Enterprises, in a patent infringement case earlier this summer.
ARM was accused of infringing a patent owned by plaintiff Eko Brands and related to reusable capsules for single beverage coffee machines. The plaintiff, a Seattle based company, filed the lawsuit in its home court where it was able to secure several favorable rulings on various issues prior to trial. In fact, as a result of a claim construction order issued prior to Willenken’s involvement with the case, the defendant had little choice but to stipulate to infringement prior to trial. At trial, the plaintiff sought compensatory damages of over $1.5 million and a finding of willfulness, which would have trebled damages to $4.5 million and supported the plaintiff’s motion for attorneys’ fees.
Willenken cross-examined Plaintiff’s damages expert at trial, painstakingly pointing out to the jury the errors in the expert’s Georgia Pacific analysis. During closing argument, the firm seized on numerous concessions by Plaintiff’s expert and other witnesses—including a key concession that the plaintiff had not apportioned damages properly — to argue that its damages analysis was vastly overinflated. Willenken also pointed out that the Plaintiff had failed to establish that the defendant had infringed the patent willfully.
In just a few short hours, the jury returned a verdict substantially in the defendant’s favor. The jury awarded a mere $192,000 in compensatory damages and found that the defendant had not willfully infringed the patent.
