Press Release
Source: Law.com
Press Release
Press Contacts: Erik Cummins, Matt Hyams, Olivia Thomas
01.25.24
For the fourth time in six months, Law.com recognized Pillsbury lawyers in its Litigator of the Week column. This latest recognition acknowledged intellectual property lawyers Bill Atkins and Ben Kiersz for their successful representation of Atlas Copco Tools and Assembly Systems LLC in patent disputes.
The cases involved two patents asserted by Wildcat Licensing relating to fastening tools that use preprogrammed sequenced torque values. Kiersz argued the case for appellees before Judges Jimmie Reyna, Richard Taranto and Leonard Stark, successfully convincing the court to uphold the earlier decisions by the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board to “knock out” the two Wildcat patents on the basis that prior art disclosed all challenged claims limitations. Concluding that the patent claims were therefore unpatentable, the Federal Circuit affirmed the earlier PTAB decisions and should effectively end at least eight related Delaware cases involving BMW, Faurecia, FCA, Ford Motor, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Lear and Magna (respectively 1:19-cv-834, 839, 840, 842-846 (D.Del)).
To read the full Litigator of the Week “Shout Out,” click here (subscription required).