Daralyn J. Durie

Durie, the co-founder of the litigation boutique that chiefly represents technology clients in intellectual property matters, had a busy couple of years.

In 2018, she and co-founder Ragesh K. Tangri opened a Los Angeles office and lured Michael J. Proctor from Boies Schiller Flexner LLP to run it — a reunion for the three, who formerly practiced together at Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP. She was also inducted as a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.

“A huge part of what makes me proud is just seeing the firm grow and be successful,” she said. “There still aren’t that many firms in California with women in front of the masthead.”

Also in 2018, she argued and prevailed for client CoreLogic Inc. in a case of first impression at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Real estate photographers suing the Irvine-based analytics and customized data services company sought hundreds of billions of dollars in statutory damages for allegedly violating their rights by producing software that removed the photographers’ identifying metadata when resizing images for internet display, preventing the photographers from managing their copyrighted work.

“A complicated case, with a tricky issue of intent,” said Durie, who before the case went up on appeal persuaded a trial judge to throw it out. “It’s important when possible to get these things kicked at the pleading stage.”

The circuit panel unanimously affirmed the summary judgment granted by U.S. District Judge Cynthia A. Bashant of San Diego. The panel held that the plaintiffs failed to show evidence that CoreLogic knew that the operation of its software would “induce, enable, facilitate, or conceal” any copyright infringement, as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

“The photographers have not offered any specific evidence that removal of … metadata from their real estate photographs will impair their policing of infringement,” wrote Circuit Judge Marsha S. Berzon for the panel. Stevens v. CoreLogic Inc., 16-56089 (9th Cir., originally filed May 7, 2015).

No prior case had interpreted that part of the DMCA. The U.S. Supreme Court denied review.

Durie also won a major fee case in 2018 for San Francisco-based Gutride Safier LLP, attaining a reversal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of a ruling that the firm filed a patent infringement suit in bad faith. “We took over at the appellate level and the circuit agreed with us that the law is unsettled and sanctions were unwarranted,” Durie said. Gust Inc. v. AlphaCap Ventures LLC, 905 F.3rd 1321 (Fed. Cir., Sept. 28, 2018).

— John Roemer