Eugene M. Paige

Cases of Note

Apple Inc. v. HTC Corp: We are lead counsel for HTC, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of handheld devices, in its ongoing battle with Apple over smartphone technology. Apple has charged HTC with patent infringement in district court and before the International Trade Commission (ITC). We are also representing HTC as a plaintiff in a separate ITC proceeding in which the company is asserting its own patents against Apple.

Internet Subscription Service v. Competitor: We prosecuted a patent infringement case on behalf of a leading Internet subscription service. Our client claimed its once larger rival infringed on our client's unique business method. The competitor countersued, alleging antitrust violations. The case was dismissed before trial.

Law Firm v. Former Client: We helped an Am Law 100 law firm obtain payment for legal services in connection with a successful infringement lawsuit against a rival company. After obtaining a multi-million dollar writ of attachment, the case was settled following arbitration.

MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc.: We defended Genentech's groundbreaking patent on recombinant antibody technology against an invalidity challenge by MedImmune. The argument before the court concerned a licensee’s ability to challenge the validity of a patent while still paying royalties for the technology. The case was dismissed before trial, without the requested finding that the Cabilly II patent was invalid.

Plaintiff v. Bank: We defended a leading national bank against allegations that its speech-enabled customer service system infringed on four patents. The case was favorably settled following a Markman hearing.

Plaintiff v. Semiconductor Company: On behalf of a Taiwan-based semiconductor company, we brought a declaratory judgment action in the Northern District of California to resolve patent claims that purported to target computer-mouse products relying on optical tracking. We settled the case favorably for our client.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company v. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation: We represented the world’s leading semiconductor foundry, TSMC, against China’s leading semiconductor manufacturer, SMIC, in the largest trade secret misuse case ever tried. SMIC owed its existence to technology stolen from our client, and faced our damages claim of $2 billion, which would have exceeded SMIC's entire market value. The parties produced nearly 18 million pages of documents and conducted 266 days of deposition in the U.S. and in Asia. Following a jury verdict in favor of our client, SMIC agreed to pay $200 million in cash and approximately $130 million of its company stock. Ultimately TSMC's goal was to protect its intellectual property, not shut down its competitor, and so settled for far less than it could have recovered. For foreign companies that market their goods and services in the U.S., this case established that California’s trade secret statute will protect the intellectual property essential to those goods and services, even if the theft occurred in Asia.

Venture Capital Firm v. Music Publishing Group: We represented online file-sharing company investors against allegations of copyright infringement, and asserted counterclaims of antitrust violations. After we used crime fraud arguments to pierce the plaintiff's attorney-client privilege, the case settled on favorable terms.