Supreme Court of the United States Litigation

We argued a case concerning the standard of knowledge necessary to find liability for inducing patent infringement.


We represented a Hong Kong manufacturer accused of inducing patent infringement, through the District Court, the Court of Appeals, and ultimately, the Supreme Court of the United States.

While we did not prevail in the Supreme Court, our efforts did result in a significantly different standard for inducing infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b), than the Federal Circuit had applied.

Details

For more than twelve years, we defended a Hong Kong manufacturer of deep fryers in two patent infringement actions.   

In the first action, we prevailed on jurisdictional grounds. In the second action, we lost a jury trial and our client ultimately faced a judgment of $5 million. The Federal Circuit affirmed. On October 12, 2010, the Supreme Court granted our petition for a writ of certiorari.  

On February 23, 2011, William Dunnegan argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. Our adversary was (now U.S. Senator) Ted Cruz. In an 8-1 decision, with Justice Kennedy dissenting, the Court affirmed the decision of the Federal Circuit.

Documents