Friday, 15 May 2015

Benefiting From Patent Litigation Contingency Fee Agreements

By Tammie Caldwell


Patent owners could win their infringement on their patent lawsuit if they proved an offender has used their patented idea or technology without their permission. An offender would proceed to demonstrate the patent was either unenforceable, no infringement has occurred or is invalid. The fees attorneys charge for representing aggrieved parties in this kind of cases are quite high. A party may reduce such fees considerably by going for a patent litigation contingency fee kind of arrangement.

You get a patent as public recognition with restriction rights on the use of your invention or idea. Someone infringes on these rights by selling, using or making your invention without your express permission. You are engaging in patent litigation when you sue a person who has infringed on your patent.

Taking advantage of contingent fee arrangements reduces out of pocket costs. In such an arrangement, the attorney deducts their fees from a settlement amount. Certain expenses, however, require out of pocket payment such as expert witness hiring, travel, transcripts, filing fees and conduction of depositions.

This arrangement gives you an opportunity to seek redress for breach of your intellectual property through a lawsuit you could not have otherwise afforded. You also drastically reduce the risks of loss in the litigation because you will pay your attorney not for the hours they work but for their results. This arrangement highly motivates your attorney to settle the lawsuit in your best interests.

During the litigation process, the defendant and their attorney could settle the case by offering a settlement amount lower than that sought by the plaintiff. Weakness of the suit appearing may make an attorney advice their client to settle. Conversely, if a defense lawyer is sure of winning, they can advise a client to wait out the full trial because their settlement amount would be bigger.

Upon taking a case on contingent fee basis, intellectual property attorneys perform their best in order to make the litigation process less time consuming and cost effective. This is in contrast with attorneys who charge their clients by the hour. Such attorneys conduct long and numerous depositions. They prepare long proceedings and send a number of attorneys to conferences and hearings. These activities increase the hours worked on a lawsuit. These kind of activities rarely take place if the attorneys are charging their client on contingency fees arrangements.

Once an intellectual property infringement lawyer is consulted, they will evaluate a case very carefully to find out how high a settlement would be. Should the case be weak, have numerous issues or lack credibility, most lawyers may decline the engagement. Should a lawyer take a case, it would be because of their confidence in winning on investment of adequate efforts.

The client needs to help their lawyer when they can, which presents them with higher chances of winning. Prudence is a client providing their lawyer with requested information fast. Formation of excellent relationships between client and lawyer during intellectual property infringement cases is critical. This raises the odds for winning thereby bagging huge settlements and fees.




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