Intellectual Property Litigation

Carmen has significant intellectual property litigation experience. He has handled matters directly and as co-counsel with patent law firms in appropriate cases.

Among some of the cases the firm has been involved with are:

• Co-counsel with a patent law firm in an infringement case, with responsibility for developing the damages portion of the case.
• Successful defense against charges of theft of trade secrets filed by the owner of an oven technology company. The owner sought $200 million in damages based on his allegation that a substantial international franchisor had misappropriated the technology in rolling out its own oven product, and then cancelled the roll out after receiving a cease-and-desist letter. A substantial part of this defense was to prove that the technology was already in the public domain (both in the United States and abroad), and that it did not confer a competitive advantage, as it did not perform adequately in testing.
• Defeating a requested federal court injunction for alleged trademark infringement against a voluntarily terminated franchisee from claims of trademark infringement. The franchisor had deliberately set a “trademark trap” by announcing the sudden end to a post-expiration, at-will relationship, knowing that the franchisee could not stop its usage of the trademarks in time to comply with the franchisor’s mandate.
• Successful defense of telemarketing firm accused of selling knock-off golf clubs.
• Client counseling on copyright matters.