Representative Engagements
FRAND / Standard-Essential Patents
• Cellular. For an ITC complainant with a portfolio of essential 4G patents, we developed an econometric model of patent essentiality to apportion the 4G and 5G standards' value between the complainant's patents and others, rebutting the respondent's claim that the complainant had not made a FRAND offer.
• Cellular. For a UK FRAND defendant, we developed an econometric model to determine consumer willingness to pay for the 4G and 5G standards in smartphones, over and above the value of "standardization."
• HEVC video codec. Smartphones often use multiple codecs, but most commercial sources do not disclose which ones. We scraped multiple websites to create a unique database showing which models use each standard, then developed an econometric model to measure each codec's value, after controlling for other smartphone features.
• eSIM cards. Virtual SIM cards, which replace physical SIM cards in smartphones, are governed by their own standard. In UK litigation, we relied on the largest licensor of eSIM patents to compute a fair and reasonable royalty rate from the licensor's multiple lump-sum agreements.
• Digital subscriber lines (ADSL /VDSL). Unlike cellular standards, cable video standards generally do not require that standard participants disclose patents that may be essential. We developed survey methods that enabled a technical expert to efficiently determine the total number of essential patents by oversampling key technology fields. Using an econometric model, we also determined the costs saved per household by deploying DSL instead of laying new cable, apportioning those savings among device manufacturers and other patentees to obtain a fair and reasonable royalty.
Life Sciences
• Biologics. In response to a claim of patent infringement, we developed an advanced econometric model counter-ing the plaintiff's claim that the defendant's biosimilar product diverted a disproportionate number of the plaintiff's short-acting neutropenia treatments, showing instead that the plaintiff's own long-acting product was an important substitute for the patented product.
• Parkinson's disease / commercial success. In a patent infringement dispute, we analyzed the commercial success attributable to a patent on a secondary feature. While the patentee's unit market share was only 4%, its price was 20 times that of competing generics. We developed an econometric model to predict sales at that price with and without the claimed feature. Actual sales were three times expected sales, evidence that the feature caused the product's commercial success.
• Microbiota transplantation.In a pharmaceutical patent dispute, our analysis targeted competing explanations for a multiproduct competitor's market exit. Through specialized analysis of financial statements and analyst reports, we assessed changes in the market-perceived probability of success, which plummeted from more than 99% to less than 1%, rebutting the plaintiff's causality claim.
Medical Instruments
• Orthopedic instruments. We computed the profits generated by a patented tool used in knee replacement surgery. Because the defendant did not sell the tool or track its usage, we used survey evidence to determine the tool's incremental contribution to profits from knee implant sales.
• Medical imaging. In a trade secret dispute involving single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging devices, we refuted the plaintiff's proposed market definition and evolution, to rebut the plaintiff's claim that it enjoyed first-mover and other advantages in the claimed market. We also developed patent-by-patent and overall product models of the defendant's alleged head start relative to provable public disclosures of the alleged secrets.
• Spinal screws. When a plaintiff asserted an 8-10% portfolio royalty rate as support for the same rate for individual patents, we developed a model of the plaintiff's portfolio that took into account the plaintiff's other licenses and the ranking of the plaintiff's other patents to determine the true market royalty rate per patent.
Information and Communications Technology
• Semiconductors. A client asserted two semiconductor patents against the multibillion-dollar product line. Relying on public financial disclosures, we econometrically computed production costs, allocated sales and overhead expenses, removed returns to past R&D, and based on that R&D estimated the number of other patents in the defendant's product, finally relying on technical and marketing evidence to rank the asserted patents and compute their share of the defendant's profits.
• Satellite radio. A patent owner asserted that its licensee's bankruptcy terminated the "fully paid up" license of our sublicensee client, who needed another license. Using stock market prices to capture changes in the client's market capitalization, and controlling for a merger and reduced license term, we computed the fair market value of "the same" license.
• Solid-state storage. A bankruptcy trustee asked us to value the rights to a portfolio of patents covering a potentially revolutionary storage technology, as of the date of its allegedly fraudulent transfer. While the defendant pointed to the technology's ex post failure, we relied on its contemporaneous forecasts and the patentee's licenses to compute the asset's value to the trustee.
Software
• Computer software. We computed the unjust enrichment obtained by a startup software firm's copyright infringement, showing that large startup costs and negative operating profit masked its high incremental profit from infringement.
• Confidential customer information. The ex-employee of a financial services software vendor took "paper gold" customer information to a rival employer, and induced others to do the same. We valued the lost information by computing the stock value from the flow of the client's prior investments in sales and marketing, allocated to the misappropriated materials.
Consumer and Industrial Products
• Consumer goods. In a breach of contract dispute between the designer and manufacturer of atmospheric water generators, we developed an econometric model of industry pricing, establishing that the plaintiff had priced its device too high in relation to its feature set, and rebutting the plaintiff's claim that the defendant's manufacturing practices were to blame for its low sales.
• Industrial tools. In response to an application for a preliminary injunction for patents protecting battery-operated strapping tools, we analyzed the causal nexus between the asserted patents and the alleged irreparable harm, disproving the assertion that the patents contributed to or maintained the plaintiff product's competitive advantage.
• Luxury vinyl tiles. In an ITC investigation, we assisted a respondent with an antitrust defense to a complainant's infringement claim, based on the complainant's pattern of misusing certain licensing terms. The investigation settled favorably.
