Attorneys at Otteson Law have represented clients in over 100 cases, achieving successful results at summary judgment, trial, settlement, and on appeal.

Representative Cases

(Clients identified in bold.)

  • Innovention Toys v. MGA Entertainment (jury trial in New Orleans federal court; victory affirmed in U.S. Supreme Court). As lead counsel for Innovention, argued to the jury that MGA intentionally plagiarized Innovention’s patented chess-like laser board game. In an overwhelming victory, the jury found that MGA willfully infringed Innovention’s patent; the judge awarded treble damages to Innovention and ordered MGA to pay Innovention’s attorney fees. Later represented Innovention in the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld all aspects of Innovention’s victory, including the award of treble damages and attorney fees.
  • Phoenix Digital Solutions (PDS) v. HTC (jury trial in San Jose federal court). As lead trial counsel for PDS, argued that HTC ripped off PDS’s pioneering technology that enabled ultra-high-speed chips for smartphones. The jury agreed that HTC infringed PDS’s patent, and awarded damages to PDS.
  • PDS v. Various Consumer Electronics Companies (bench trial in U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, DC; settlements after trial). As lead trial counsel for PDS (represented by a trial team of six attorneys), argued that 14 consumer electronics companies (e.g., Amazon, Acer, Garmin, etc.; represented by a trial team of 60+ attorneys) infringed PDS’s pioneering patent for ultra-high-speed chips. After trial, multiple defendants agreed to pay PDS 7-figure settlements for the right to use PDS’s patented technology.
  • Angioscore v. TriReme Medical (jury trial in Oakland federal court). As lead trial counsel, defended TriReme Medical, which Angioscore accused of infringing a patent for angioplasty catheters. In a crushing victory, the jury found that TriReme did not infringe, and that Angioscore’s patent was invalid.
  • Kaneka v. Xiamen Kingdomway Group Co. (XKGC) (ITC trial in Washington, DC). As lead trial counsel, defended XKGC against accusations that it infringed Kaneka’s patent for the production of the dietary supplement CoQ-10. The ITC found that XKGC did not infringe, handing XKGC a complete victory.
  • Crocs v. Various Knock-off Shoe Manufacturers (including Payless) (ITC trial; total victory on appeal).  Lead trial counsel for Crocs in a patent infringement trial in the ITC against 6-7 knock-off companies, including Payless Shoes. After trial, the ITC initially ruled against Crocs on its two patents (one patent not infringed; the other invalid).  On Crocs’ appeal to the Federal Circuit, obtained a complete reversal on both patents, resulting in a total victory for Crocs. The ITC then entered a general exclusion order that barred the importation of all infringing knock-off shoes.
  • Cargill v. Nantong Foreign Trade (NFT) (ITC; won after summary judgment motions). Defended NFT against Cargill’s accusations that NFT infringed a patent for the production of glucosamine, a joint supplement. After NFT filed summary judgment motions that NFT did not infringe Cargill’s patent and that the patent was invalid, Cargill gave up and dropped the case – resulting in complete victory for NFT.
  • Trend Micro v. Barracuda Networks (ITC; settlement before trial). Defended Barracuda from Trend Micro’s accusation that Barracuda infringed a patent for anti-virus software. The case settled on the eve of trial on terms extremely favorable to Barracuda.
  • Sanyo v. MediaTek (Los Angeles federal court; settlement after winning summary judgment motions). Lead counsel for MediaTek to defend against Sanyo’s accusations that MediaTek infringed patents for chips in DVD players. After winning two key summary judgment motions that severely limited Sanyo’s damages, the case settled a month before trial for less than 1% of Sanyo’s anticipated recovery.
  • Microtune v. Broadcom (Federal court in Sherman, Texas; global settlement on eve of trial).  Helped formulate and present argument that Broadcom’s newly designed TV tuner chip for set-top boxes did not infringe Microtune’s patent.  Knowing that Broadcom’s new chip did not infringe, Microtune tried to introduce irrelevant e-mails in which Broadcom engineers said bad things about Sherman, Texas (where the trial was set), in an attempt to poison the jury against Broadcom.  After Otteson successfully convinced the judge to exclude the irrelevant and harmful e-mails, the parties reached a favorable global settlement on the eve of trial.
  • Broadcom v. Microtune (ITC; global settlement after trial). Lead counsel for Broadcom in an ITC patent trial regarding Microtune’s alleged infringement of a patent for the protection of computer chips from static electricity. The case ultimately settled on favorable terms in conjunction with global settlement with Microtune (see above).
  • Zoran v. MediaTek (ITC trial in Washington, DC; global settlement after trial). Defended MediaTek as lead trial counsel against Zoran’s accusations that MediaTek infringed patents for chips in CD-ROM drives and DVD players. Following trial, MediaTek won on half of accused products.  We limited MediaTek’s exposure on its other products because we helped MediaTek develop a noninfringing design-around. The case ultimately settled.
  • Tessera v. Sharp (two ITC trials in Washington, DC). Lead trial counsel for Tessera in two ITC trials against Sharp for its infringement of Tessera’s pioneering patents for “chip scale packaging” (CSP) technology – which enables much smaller computer chips, leading to smaller and lighter cell phones and other consumer electronics. The two trials resulted in a complete victory against Sharp, forcing Sharp to pay for a license to use Tessera’s CSP technology.
  • Oak Technology v. UMC & MediaTek (ITC trial in Washington, DC). As lead trial counsel, defended UMC and MediaTek against Oak’s accusations of patent infringement by computer chips for CD-ROM drives. In an overwhelming victory after trial, the ITC judge ruled that UMC and MediaTek’s chips did not infringe, and that Oak’s patent was invalid for multiple reasons. Later served as lead counsel to defeat Oak’s appeal to Federal Circuit.
  • Woltz v. Copart (bench trial in San Francisco federal court). Defended Copart in a trial before U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker. Woltz argued that Copart infringed a copyright for software in a management system for auto salvage and sales.  At the end of the trial, Judge Walker ruled that Copart had a complete license to use the software, handing Copart a total victory.
  • OddzOn Products v. Just Toys (Oakland federal court; won on summary judgment and on appeal). OddzOn argued that Just Toys infringed a design patent for a toy football with a tail and fins.  Prepared and won a summary judgment motion that Just Toys’ football could not infringe OddzOn’s design patent, because a design patent only covers the ornamental or aesthetic aspects of a design – not how a product functions.  Thus, the judge correctly ruled that OddzOn’s patent could not cover how the tail and fins on Just Toys’ football stabilized its flight so that it spiraled every time. (Just Toys’ motion was supported by an actual NASA rocket scientist who testified about how the tail and fins stabilized the flight of Just Toys’ football.) Wrote the argument that successfully defeated OddzOn’s appeal to the Federal Circuit.
  • Conner Peripherals v. IBM Corp. (San Jose federal court and the ITC; settled on extremely favorable terms).  In what the judge dubbed at the time “the biggest patent case in U.S. history,” helped Conner assert multiple patents against IBM that forced IBM to settle on extremely favorable terms to avoid the ITC’s exclusion of all IBM “ThinkPad” laptops from being imported into the United States.