Terrence P. McMahon

Time can be the enemy in patent infringement cases, McMahon said.

That's why he moved full steam ahead and ultimately secured a settlement agreement on behalf of client Spansion in a legal campaign that spanned multiple jurisdictions, including the International Trade Commission.

At issue were patents involving flash memory.

In 2010, McDermott was retained by Spansion to replace prior counsel on its roster of existing cases against Samsung.

At McMahon's recommendation, Spansion agreed to conduct a portfolio review to prepare for bringing additional patents into play.

"I put together a team of highly trained and experienced IP lawyers to engineer and analyze the portfolio to come up with the best patents they could assert against Samsung to get things rolling," McMahon said.

Five additional lawsuits then were prepared and filed in fast-paced jurisdictions against Samsung and various customers, including Apple, Nokia and Research in Motion.

All told, the venues included Delaware, Virginia, California and Wisconsin, as well as the ITC.

"We figured out where the pressure points were and started in jurisdictions where we knew we could get a fast trial date," he said.

With McMahon going after Samsung "hammer and tong," Samsung then entered into expedited licensing negotiations.

"We were committed to going to trial and they knew it," he said. "They knew that we had the tiger by the tail."

The case settled, resulting in the dismissal with prejudice of all pending actions, and Samsung agreeing to pay Spansion $150 million over five years.

- PAT BRODERICK

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