PATENT VENUE SHOPPING
I just read the opinion piece by Bruce Lehman. ["Venue shopping in patent cases must stop," NLJ, Nov. 16.] That piece discusses Centocor v. Abbott — in which I was co-counsel for the plaintiff Centocor — in support of reform, suggesting the case was wrongly or unfairly decided. The piece is misinformed and wrong itself in several material respects. As to venue, it was never challenged by Abbott, even though there was a change in the law on venue during the pendency of the case. Abbott agreed in the pretrial order that venue was proper in the Eastern District of Texas, and its experienced counsel was quite comfortable trying the case there.
As to such a complex case being tried in “fewer than four days” of testimony, that is not exactly accurate, but, more important, counsel for both sides were asked by the trial judge on at least three occasions prior to trial if the 12.5 hours allotted per side was sufficient to try the case; each time, Abbott’s experienced counsel affirmed that the time allowed was sufficient. There was never any claim that the allotted time was insufficient — no objection to the limits and no motion to extend them. As to the damages numbers, indeed they were large, but the sales of the infringing product were similarly large — in the billions per year. It is not surprising that, in this context, the jury found damages of $1.67 billion, which was more than a half-billion less than Centocor sought and proved with evidence.
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