Douglas Dixon

Although based in Newport Beach and focusing on intellectual property for 12 years, Douglas Dixon of Hueston Hennigan LLP now litigates patent cases all over the country.

As lead counsel, he prevailed in two jury trials last year--one in Texas, on the plaintiff's side, back in May; the other in Delaware, representing the defendant last November.

"I do not have a scientific background," Dixon said. "My major is in political science, but what I do possess is real love for technology and science and I think that as an attorney, that is often the heart of patent cases."

His approach to cases dealing with technological advances and development design starts by addressing fundamental questions: Who owns the idea? Who has the right to use the idea? And how do these ideas impact everyone's lives?

One of the recent trial narratives was that the plaintiff didn't apply for the patent until after his client's conferencing device was already on the market. Shure Incorporated et. al. v. Clearone, Inc., 1:19-CV-01343-RGA (D. Del., filed Oct. 20, 2021).

"These are bitter rivals," Dixon said. "Anyone can appreciate a sort of injustice there: my client releases a product and then its biggest competitor comes after them seeking millions of dollars in alleged damages, based on a patent that didn't exist."

In that dispute, he explained, "since the patentee, Shure, applied for and obtained the patent after my client, ClearOne, released its allegedly infringing product, one of the key issues was whether Shure could leapfrog back in time to claim priority to an earlier patent application. We argued that it couldn't and that in fact, Shure's own competing product invalidated the asserted patent. The jury agreed."

Dixon strongly believes litigating cases with the client from the very beginning is a key to success. That happened in another major trial last year involving the patentee of a semiconductor. This time, his client was the plaintiff. Acorn Semi LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd., 2:19-CV-00347 (E.D. Tex., filed Oct. 23, 2019).

"Our endgame was to stay focused on the trial story, trying to develop a simple, cohesive and credible story that we felt resonated with the jury and even the court," he said.

Dixon posited: how to approach a technology that reduces contact resistance when an electron passes from metal to silicon metal?

"One of the themes that we hit upon was that this technology helps extend battery life and makes your smartphone run faster," he answered. "Every juror was able to relate to that very straightforward, simple proposition. Everyone wants their smartphones to last longer and to go a little bit faster."

In the end, when representing the patentee, a good invention story is critical. Dixon described the inventor's testimony as one of the most important details of a patent trial. "Trials are about organizing facts around a memorable story," he explained. "Asking the inventor to describe the process that led to that 'eureka' moment when he or she discovered something novel, something new, helps humanize and dramatize what can often be complex technology in a very memorable way."

- Ricardo Pineda