Patent Litigator from Skadden Moves to Attorneys Buchanan

NEW YORK, Feb. 26 LAWFUEL - US Law Firm News, Law Jobs -- Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC announced today the addition of patent and intellectual property litigator
Constance S. Huttner, who will chair the firm's Intellectual Property
Litigation Group. Prior to joining Buchanan, Huttner was a partner in the
Intellectual Property and Technology Group of Skadden, Arps, where she has focused on patent and technical litigation since establishing Skadden's patent litigation practice in 1990. Huttner is a shareholder in Buchanan's New York office.

The firm expects to add other patent litigation attorneys to Huttner's practice in the coming weeks.

Huttner joins the 120 attorneys and patent agents who already practice in Buchanan's IP and IP litigation groups.

Microsoft to book publishers: don’t trust Google with copyright

While Google says that it doesn't currently intend to place ads next to book search results, Google's broader business model is straightforward – attract as many users as possible to its site by providing what it considers to be 'free' content, then monetize that content by selling ads. I think Pat Schroeder put it best when she said Google has 'a hell of a business model – they're going to take everything you create, for free, and sell advertising around it.'"

He also attacked Google for scanning books without the permission of the copyright holder:

"Concocting a novel “fair use" theory, Google bestowed upon itself the unilateral right to make entire copies of copyrighted books not covered by these publisher agreements without first obtaining the copyright holder's permission."

He then pointed out that Microsoft's very own book search programs, Live Search Books and Live Search Academic, do seek the permission of the copyright holders before scanning books.

Intellectual Property Litigation Threatens a Growing Array of ...

According to research conducted by IncreMental Advantage, companies in a growing array of industries face potentially ruinous litigation relating to intellectual property. David Wanetick, Managing Director of IncreMental Advantage and Chief Intellectual Property Officer, said, Sources of Intellectual Property litigation include attacks by patent trolls, disputes over licensing issues, business methods patent violations, counterfeiting and disclosures of trade secrets.

Trends in Intellectual Property litigation include:
The number of intellectual property lawsuits soared almost three-fold from the beginning of the 1980s to the end of the 1990s. From 1984 to 1999, the median loss absorbed by companies faced with IP litigation was $2.9 million and the mean loss was $28.7 million in total losses.

Intellectual Property Verdicts Exceed $1.3 Billion in 2006

Finisar Corp. employs dozens of Ph.D.-level scientists to create technology for its high-speed data communication components and testing business, but one of the company's most lucrative inventions may be a patent outside of its core business that generated a court victory worth $117.3 million last year.

In June 2006, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Finisar won a $78.9 million jury verdict in a patent infringement case against broadcast satellite company The DirecTV Group Inc. of El Segundo, Calif. Although appeals are in the works, fines are racking up, including a judge's $25 million enhancement for willful infringement and $13.4 million for prejudgment interest, post-judgment interest and a compulsory license. Finisar Corp. v. DirecTV Group Inc., No. 05-00264 (E.D. Texas).

Amid a worldwide market expansion for technology products, the Finisar case is one of a burgeoning number of blockbuster verdicts in intellectual property cases.

Survey: Insiders the biggest threat to intellectual property

A new survey released today found that more than half of enterprises believe that the biggest threat to their sensitive information is through the action of malicious or negligent insiders—be they employees, outsourced workers or others working with trusted partners.

The results of the survey were published in an Enterprise Strategy Group brief titled "Intellectual Property Rules" as part of research conducted on behalf of Reconnex. In the report, analyst Eric Ogren noted that the insider threat is a risk not just to personally identifiable information, but also to the myriad of other types of intellectual property (IP) that businesses must protect daily.

"One of the surprises (we found) is how many different forms of IP of there are out there that companies are worried about protecting," Ogren told SCMagazine.com.