The U.S. Supreme Court recently made it easier to recovery attorney fees from patent holders who file abusive lawsuits. Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton partner Stephen Korniczky proved last year that law firms can be forced to pay too. It wasn’t just any law firm he was up against, either. It was a team from Niro, Haller & Niro that included Raymond Niro Sr., an accomplished patent litigator who is sometimes described as the original “patent troll.” Following a trial, a Freedom of Information request and more than a year of fee litigation, Judge William Hart of Illinois ruled that Niro and his partners had maintained an infringement suit against Korniczky’s client, HTC Corp., despite knowing that inventor Daniel Henderson had fraudulently obtained the patents-in-suit. He held Henderson’s Intellect Wireless Inc., Niro Haller and four partners jointly and severally liable for $4 million in fees. The decision led directly to a second judge sanctioning Intellect Wireless and Niro Haller for a similar case against four other companies, including two clients of Korniczky’s.
You were up against not only Ray Niro and his law firm, but a client of his who’d had a lot of success enforcing these picture-phone patents, right?
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