Headquartered within steps of the USPTO with an affiliate office in Tokyo, Oblon is one of the largest law firms in the United States focused exclusively on intellectual property law.
1968
Norman Oblon with Stanley Fisher and Marvin Spivak launched what was to become Oblon, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, LLP, one of the nation's leading full-service intellectual property law firms.
Outside the US, we service companies based in Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and farther corners of the world. Our culturally aware attorneys speak many languages, including Japanese, French, German, Mandarin, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Chinese.
Oblon's professionals provide industry-leading IP legal services to many of the world's most admired innovators and brands.
From the minute you walk through our doors, you'll become a valuable part of a team that fosters a culture of innovation, client service and collegiality.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued final rules implementing the inventor's oath or declaration provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA) on August 14, 2012.
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In an earlier post commenting on the Federal Circuit decision in Spectralytics, Inc. v. Cordis Corp., we observed that a willful infringer’s failure to obtain advice of counsel prior to litigation can affect the amount by which the district court judge enhances damages. In the Spectralytics decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed the lower court in all respects except on the issues of whether Spectralytics, the patent owner, should have been denied enhanced damages and attorney’s fees for Cordis’s willful infringement.
On remand, the district court declined to award attorney’s fees, but, taking into account all of the Read factors, awarded enhanced damages of $500,000. Spectralytics, Inc. v. Cordis Corp., No. 05-cv-1464, slip op. at 2 (D. Minn. Nov. 30, 2011). Notably, the district court found that only the following two Read factors weighed in favor of an award of enhanced damages: Cordis’s failure to obtain pre-litigation advice of counsel and the fact that Cordis was a large corporation in good financial condition. Id.at 13. Had it obtained the advice of counsel C which presumably would have been favorable to Cordis, given the district court’s observation “that, had the court been sitting as the fact finder, it likely would have found [Spectralytics’s] patent invalid” id. at 9 C Cordis likely would have avoided $500,000 in enhanced damages. It also goes without saying that, had Cordis obtained advice of counsel and formed a good-faith belief that it did not infringe, then the jury may not have found Cordis’s infringement to be willful in the first place.