Mega firm litigation woes: you win a big patent litigation instruction only to find that you cannot act because it may cause a potential conflict with a big corporate the firm is trying to win deal work from. Sound familiar then you may find the latest Bloomberg story (Kolker) on corporate defender turned patent troll interesting, if not inspiring."John Desmarais, a former top earner at the 1,500-lawyer firm Kirkland & Ellis, spent more than 15 years representing some of the world’s largest patent owners. Now he’s one of them, and he’s gearing up to slay the kinds of companies he once defended. "
The story once again raises issues over whether trolling is good for IP business. John F. Duffy, a law professor at George Washington University is quoted:
“The good story about nonpracticing entities is that they are developing liquidity in the market for these patent rights. On the negative side, they are given patent rights for goods or services they don’t make and can sue other companies for infringement, he said. "
Illustration by Bob MacNeil
