Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Prominent Dallas trial lawyers Michael K. Hurst and Shonn Brown, who represent Ray Hunt and Highland Capital in multimillion-dollar litigation, are leaving Gruber Hurst for crosstown rival Lynn Pinker Cox. Hurst and Brown are taking five lawyers with them. The Texas Lawbook interviewed all parties.
The Supreme Court of Texas upheld its ruling from last year when the majority interpreted a drilling lease as clearly excluding post-production costs from royalties.
A federal jury in Tyler ruled Wednesday that Apple willfully infringed on patents owned by a Nevada security software company and ordered the technology giant to pay VirnetX Holding Corp. $625 million in damages.
A Fort Worth judge has awarded an Arlington schoolteacher $11.5 million in lost royalties and pre-judgment interest for losing out on her share of a business deal that originally published bestseller erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey in 2010.
A third group of plaintiffs is scheduled to go to trial on March 21.
Oil and gas heir Albert Hill Jr. must pay Dallas trial lawyer Gregory Shamoun $7.25 million for helping settle a lengthy and heated hundred-million-dollar inheritance dispute with his son, Al Hill III, the Dallas Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. The appeals court ruled The trial court was wrong to rule that there was no evidence that Shamoun being paid what amounts to $48,000 an hour was illegally excessive.
Lubbock District Judge Ruben Reyes sanctioned Dallas trial lawyer Bill Brewer $133,000 for alleged improper conduct committed misconduct for using a so-called push poll to improperly influence potential jurors in a West Texas wrongful death case that was weeks away from trial in 2014. Brewer denies it was a push poll and argues he has done nothing unethical. “Mr. Brewer’s explanation that he bears clean hands because the poll was a blind study conducted by a third party vendor is insulting to this court," the judge wrote.
While those damages in the patent infringement litigation may sound great, the Plano firm’s real goal could be to land a permanent injunction to get competing technology off the market.
Prominent Dallas litigation boutique Lynn Tillotson Pinker Cox is trimming its name. The firm announced Monday that trial lawyer Jeff Tillotson is leaving to temporarily start his own firm, but it is expected that he will join Reese Gordon Marketos as a partner later this year. The Texas Lawbook has exclusive comments from Tillotson, Mike Lynn and Joel Reese.
For now, its neighbors to the east reign supreme as the national hotspot for patent litigation. But Congressional and appellate forces could eventually squelch the Tyler-based crowd’s party – and make Dallas-Fort Worth courts an attractive alternative.
The Texas Lawbook has the details on all the data, which even veteran IP litigators that are EDTX regulars find stunning.
Hope Shimabuku grew up 15 minutes from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Her mother worked for NASA on the Apollo program. Her father was an oil and gas engineer. After college, Shimabuku worked as an engineer at Dell. On Monday, she becomes the first director of the new Dallas office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Shimabuku, a former lawyer for Blackberry and Xerox, has big challenges ahead. The Texas Lawbook has the full profile.
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