Posts Tagged: "negotiation"

Time Warner Asks CAFC to Vacate $139.8M Reasonable Royalty Awarded to Sprint

John O’Quinn, partner at Kirkland & Ellis and counsel representing Time Warner at the Federal Circuit, argued that the entire verdict should be vacated, not just the damages portion, because the court allowed the jury to use a 2007 verdict granted to Sprint against Vonage on the same asserted patents as evidence to determine the damages award. That verdict involved the use of a 25 percent rule of thumb for determining a royalty rate, a rule that the Federal Circuit has subsequently held to be inappropriate in a landmark ruling in 2011. 

Israeli Camera Developer says Apple infringed after expressing interest in business relationship

Corephotonics allegedly first informed Apple that it intended to pursue patent protections for its dual-aperture camera technologies as early as June 2012 during a meeting involving representatives of both firms. In June 2013, Apple camera engineers visited Corephotonics’ Tel Aviv headquarters and were presented with technical details and architectures regarding Corephotonics’ camera technology as well as pending patent applications which the Israeli startup had already filed. In October of that year, a larger team of Apple engineers visited Corephotonics in Tel Aviv to engage in discussions surrounding dual camera processing methods.

Licensing and the Art of Preventive Negotiation: Minimizing Unintended Consequences

The art of preventive negotiation in a license agreement is not practiced solely by means of pen and paper (or word processor); but instead, starts much earlier. The care and attention devoted to the earliest stages of a deal are highly worthwhile. A friend and fellow LES member is fond of saying: “No deal without a meal.” This is emblematic of the fact that a license agreement is no more than an attempt to put in writing what the parties have agreed they are desirous of achieving, and how they propose allocating rights and responsibilities to achieve those ends. Trust is an essential component, and this is built up over time… The term sheet should be focused only on the major terms of consequence. It should not descend to tactics and operations or else it runs the risk of invading the rightful province of detailed negotiation and drafting of the agreement itself, and a needless redundancy. Tactical details are for later, when the investment is clearly justified. Likewise, premature focus on the tactical raises the risk that negotiation of the ultimate agreement becomes a rehash of the term sheet, which risks not only duplication of effort, but inconsistency, misunderstanding, and deviation from the strategic objectives underlying the alliance.