Jeffery Berkowitz and Gerson Panitch, partners at Finnegan, Henderson, , Garrett & Dunner, LLP., presented a two-day seminar at the Dan Accadia Hotel, Herzliya. The seminar, which ran over the 23rd and 24th of June 2010, was attended by a couple of dozen in-house IP Counsel from Israeli industry, and by three or four patent attorneys from leading IP Law firms.
The course covered pre-litigation analysis, forum shopping, cease and desist letters, discovery, depositions, settling out of court, dismissal before trial, selecting a jury and winning in court, with the appeal process also discussed. The course succeeded in what it set out to do, i.e. to educate a sophisticated and intelligent IP Savvy audience about the litigation process in the US.
The audience included IP counsel of Israeli firms such as Red Bend that were in the process of litigating against corporate giant Microsoft, companies such as Nuvoton that have been stung by non-practicing entities (sometimes called trolls), and the IP counsel of Nice Software Systems that has given depositions and had some familiarity with the system.
It is and always has been clear that patent litigation in the US is an expensive business that is not for the faint-hearted. After this seminar, most participants had a better idea of where the money went. Like a Hollywood production, there are script-writers, researchers and stars that need paying.
Jeffery Berkowitz and Gerson Panitch are both very competent lecturers and appear to be very pleasant and personable. I imagine that this helps them in both depositioning and cross-examining witnesses.
Despite costing a wacking $1000 per person, I think everyone was very satisfied that they got value for money, as we all came away with a better understanding of US Litigation. The food was excellent, with a generous breakfast and a gourmet three-course buffet lunch being provided, with croissants as a mid-morning snack and an extravagant fruit platter in the afternoon.
The event was hosted by Kim Lindy’s latest initiative – the IP Resources Ltd.
Over the summer, speakers from Finnegan will be lecturing on a weekly basis at the Law Offices of Eitan Mehullal in a series of seminars sponsored by the IP Law Department of Haifa University. Warmly recommended.
