Michael J. Bettinger

As the attorney in charge of Eastman Kodak Co.'s patent litigation efforts, Bettinger argues the company's bankruptcy filing only raises the stakes in the outcome of its legal battles with Apple Inc..

"It becomes a huge issue about what the value of the Kodak intellectual property will be," he said.

"In some ways, it gets more complicated," Bettinger said of the bankruptcy's impact on the ongoing litigation. "In others, it gets more streamlined."

Aple and Kodak have been battling it out before the U.S. International Trade Commission, where companies seek to block rivals from importing products that infringe patents into the country.

Bettinger defeated Apple's patent infringement claims against Kodak last summer, with the commission affirming an administrative law judge's finding of non-infringement and invalidity. In the Matter of Digital Imaging Devices and Related Software, 337-TA-717 (ITC, filed April 15, 2010).

Meanwhile, Bettinger was able to persuade the commission to remand an Apple-favorable ruling on a patent on a way to preview digital images on their phones. The case was sent back to an administrative law judge.

But Kodak is not Bettinger's only client. In February, he won a defense verdict for Sigma International General Medical Apparatus LLC, defending the company against a patent infringement lawsuit filed by competitor CareFusion Corp. in a medical device case.

CareFusion sought $172 million in damages and a permanent injunction, but in a two-week trial presided by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of the Southern District of California, the jury returned a verdict of non-infringement.

Bettinger thought the case would be difficult, due to claim construction rulings that he thought favored the plaintiff, but won the trial anyway. "Given the facts, I thought it was a particularly rewarding case," he said. CareFusion 303 Inc. v. Sigma International, 10-442 (S.D. Cal., filed Feb. 26, 2010).

He is currently representing memory chip manufacturer Hynix Semiconductor Inc. against patent infringement claims filed in the ITC and District of Delaware by patent holding company Intellectual Ventures LLC.

- Craig Anderson

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