LITIGATION – OVERVIEW

Philosophy

If you are a party to a lawsuit, you must clearly identify the objective of the litigation and understand the underlying financial aspect of the litigation.

Whether you are the plaintiff or the defendant, a clear objective is essential in order to guide the direction of the litigation. There are many ways in approaching and/or responding to a lawsuit — your objective will be your guide.

In addition, you must be mindful of the cost of the litigation (e.g. attorney fees and third party costs) and weigh it against, the potential return from the litigation if you are the plaintiff, and the potential payout to the plaintiff, if you are the defendant. This financial balancing, in view of your objective, must make sense to you.

We patiently work with our clients through the many steps of litigation. Litigation can be an especially stressful time for you, as the client, since there are many steps that you must follow when pursuing a judicial resolution on an issue. The civil litigation process is relatively uniform and is controlled by federal or state court rules. The process itself involves a considerable volume of work whether or not the case actually goes to trial. We work with the client to understand and complete each of these steps, including the following: filing of an initial pleading (complaint) and/or response (answer); pretrial motions; discovery, including depositions, subpoenas, and interrogatories; pretrial conferences; trial; judgment; and appeals.

We can assist you in this decision-making process. We have represented clients of all sizes in a wide range of fields and industries.

Intellectual Property

In the area of intellectual property, we have represented clients in charging and responding to issues of patent infringement, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and trade secret actions. Due to the substantial technical background of the attorneys in the firm, the firm is well suited in handling technology, biotech and intellectual property disputes.

Patent Litigation and Non-Infringement Opinions

Specifically, the firm has represented clients in federal courts in responding to patent infringement suits and assisted clients in navigating and settling patent infringement suits. Given the prevailing trend of non-practicing entities (“NPE”) bringing suits against companies for patent infringement, we have successfully managed lawsuits against our clients for patent infringement and brought them to successful completion. In this process, we not only analyze the merits and the validity of the underlying patents, most particularly, we also assist the company in analyzing the potential financial impact to the company. With the various possible litigation scenarios, we assist the company in coming to a decision and forming a strategy with respect to the patent infringement actions by the NPEs.

Given the technical backgrounds of the attorneys in the firm, the firm analyzes and provides opinions on matters of infringement or non-infringement with respect to products in view of the asserted one or more patents.

Copyright Litigation

One notable copyright case researched, prepared and filed by Mr. Emil Chang is Kuo Ying-Nan et al. vs. Enigma, Michael Cretu, Virgin Schallplatten GmbH, Mambo Music, Charisma Records of America, Capital-EMI Music, Inc. and the International Olympic Committee. In this copyright infringement case, Mr. Chang worked with Taiwan attorney Ms. Huang Shiu-Lan, researched the laws of Taiwan ROC, France, Germany and United States, approached the various named defendants and ultimately filed suit against the named defendants in the United States for copyright infringement when they failed to settle. Because this was a particularly complex case, none of the U.S. firms approached were willing to take on the case. Mr. Chang filed and carried the case until Mr. Chang’s employer firm at the time finally decided to take on the case (after turning it down three times). After the firm took on the case, Mr. Pat Ellisen brought this case to successful settlement. This case was reported by various news agencies of several countries and written up in academic books/journals as an example of copyright infringement.

Commercial Litigation

In any commercial dispute, it is critical to consider litigation within the context of each of your business interests. With that approach in mind, we work with clients to create a comprehensive strategy for resolving disputes. We consider a full range of issues facing the client, including the need to manage business relationships, reduce litigation costs, and explore alternative dispute resolution.

We have represented both public and private companies in business disputes, including cases involving:

• Commercial agreements: We challenged and defended the validity and enforceability of business agreements of various types.
• Partnership disputes: We represented principals involved in disputes between partners, closely held entities, LLCs, and members of boards of directors.
• Business fraud: We represented companies in various types of fraud-related claims.
• Employment law: We counseled and defended employers against allegations of wrongful termination and other employment law issues.
• Bankruptcy: We represented businesses and creditors in the collection and defense of unpaid commercial loans and commercial collections actions. We assisted with the purchase of assets from bankruptcy proceedings and have filed a bankruptcy action on behalf of a business.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

When our client is confronted with an issue that may involve litigation, he or she should be aware of the different forums and alternatives to decide what will best serve the specific needs of his or her company. In addition to the courtroom, there are other forums that might be appropriate, depending on the specific needs of the business, including demand letters, alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) , or informal negotiations between the disputing parties. Whatever the situation, we provide our client with high quality, trusted legal counsel by not only understanding business law, but by also understanding our client, the client’s business, and the industry standards. Based on our extensive understanding of the situation, we have successfully negotiated settlements in which the client was able to avoid litigation, thereby saving the client additional legal fees and costs.