The packing boxes are out in Stephen Susman’s New York office, but it’s not because the top commercial litigator is hightailing it out of New York back to Texas. To the contrary: After opening its first small Manhattan office in a midtown tower last fall, Susman Godfrey is moving to bigger digs up Madison Avenue, on a block flanked by Barney’s and a Calvin Klein store, the well-clad Susman notes appreciatively. The new offices will house ten lawyers, double the present count.
In a very short period of time, three years at most, Susman Godfrey has muscled its way to become a major intellectual property litigator, mostly for plaintiffs and mostly on contingency. Susman, an imposing presence who made his name and fortune as an antitrust litigator, says that there was never a master plan; his firm simply took advantage of the decision of federal district court judges in the Eastern District of Texas to make it a top patent forum. Susman Godfrey declined to participate in our annual patent litigation survey [title tk, page tk], but Susman says the firm has 40 patent cases pending. Susman is personally overseeing seven cases, making up the majority of his current practice. They include Microunity’s suit against Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc., alleging that the Sony Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, and Playstation 3 infringe Microunity’s patents relating to microprocessor and memory controller design, and Droplets, Inc.’s suit against Adobe Systems Inc. alleging that its Flex and Apollo products infringe Droplets’s patented technology for offering graphics-rich applications over the Internet with only a thin bandwidth connection. “There are a lot of inventors who want to employ us on a contingency basis,” Susman says. No wonder, given his track record in front of juries. His firm hires technology experts and carefully evaluates a case over about a three-month period to decide whether to take it on.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
