Daralyn J. Durie

At the helm of the IP litigation boutique she co-founded in 2009, Daralyn J. Durie said that Durie Tangri LLP has never been busier.

To that, she added a plea for talent. "We're struggling to hire people as we're expanding. We're looking to welcome people who want to join an exciting trial practice."

Durie was coming off her fourth jury trial win in a row, all since the pandemic began. "Quite a streak," she said.

This time it took a Delaware federal jury 90 minutes--including lunch--to rule in favor of her client, a maker of USB connectors used in linking smartphones to auto infotainment systems. The client was accused of patent infringement by a larger rival, but the defendant did not infringe, the jury held. The mid-April 2022 verdict followed a six-day trial. Microchip Technology Inc. v. Aptiv Services US LLC, 1:17-cv-01194 (D. Del., filed Aug. 24, 2017).

Durie Tangri was brought on three months before trial was set to begin. Microchip was asking for $80 million in damages. "A big part of the win was our great story," Durie said. "When Apple came out with CarPlay, suppliers hurried to make the necessary connectors. We solved a USB problem that Microchip could not, so they decided to sue a small company to make up for some bad business decisions."

Further exhibiting its range, this year Durie Tangri won a Daily Journal CLAY Award for fending off copyright infringement claims for client Redbubble in a major defense victory. And it scored a Daily Journal Top Verdict--a $178 million patent infringement jury ruling--for its plaintiff client, Plexxikon Inc.

Durie established that Redbubble, an online marketplace, isn't responsible for copyright or trademark infringement regarding the t-shirts, mugs, stickers and other merchandise on its website. The merchandise is created by independent artists and produced by third-party vendors. Pending an appeal, the November 2021 jury verdict signaled that Redbubble and similar sites can continue to do business without incurring Lanham Act liability. Atari Interactive v. Redbubble Inc., 4:18-cv-03451 (N.D. Cal., filed June 11, 2018).

"The case turned into a referendum on whether Redbubble acts only as a facilitator or was responsible for the images on the products it sells. We said that view would break the internet."

For Plexxicon, Durie and colleagues persuaded jurors that a rival owed the client $178 million for making only slight molecular changes to compounds Plexxicon developed beginning in 2005 that help reduce cancer cell growth. The panel deliberated for less than a morning before ruling that Plexxicon's patent had been infringed. Plexxicon Inc. v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., 3:17-cv-00405 (N.D. Cal., filed Aug. 3, 2017).

"We're not on the plaintiff side that often, and this is the largest plaintiff award I've been involved in," Durie said.

- John Roemer