The ability to grow hair could be called the Holy Grail of the dermatology business, and it played a critical part in a "bet the company" biotech patent dispute.
At issue were therapies for skin care and hair growth, which generated three years of hard-fought litigation over the patents for making them.
The plaintiff company, SkinMedica, had sued Kay's clients Histogen Inc. and its founder Gail Naughton, for alleged patent infringement of the therapies. SkinMedica Inc. v. Histogen Inc., 09cv122 JLS (NLS) (S.D. Cal.).
Kay showed through graphics that Histogen's cell culture methods differed from the inventions named in the suit.
Kay won summary judgment of noninfringement for Histogen and Naughton.
"It took a long time to get through the court system, and millions of dollars in defending the case," Kay said. "There were a lot of motions and depositions and experts, all leading up to the pivotal hearing that made the difference."
Kay also keeps busy handling trade secret cases - a much different type of IP - for clients such as Micron Technology and SmartDrive Systems.
"In patent lawsuits, you have patent claims," he said. "In trade secret disputes, you spend a lot of time arguing about what are the trade secrets."
Kay said he has experienced "a boom" in the trade secret litigation he's been handling - in the past year, that included claims of more than 450 trade secrets.
"Twenty years ago, it was shopping center design disputes, and now it's biotech, technology and computer-related disputes - areas of the law that are greatly expanding."
- PAT BRODERICK
#331286
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