Stanley M. Gibson

Like many patent lawyers, Stan Gibson loves technology. Unlike many, he majored in English, not engineering or science. That background is useful now as a trial attorney.

"I can take a very complex set of facts and get it down to something that's understandable," Gibson said. "Once I understand something, I can explain it to someone else in a nice, simple way."

To do that in a trial about technology, he first makes sure he understands the technology thoroughly himself, he said. "And then once I understand that, I know the process I went through to understand it."

He did that to win a $5.1 million jury verdict last month for a company developing a head-mounted smart display that allows the wearer to control a computer by voice or gesture. The jury also recommended nearly $20 million in disgorgement and exemplary damages.

Gibson said his client created the technology 15 years ago, but a development partner stole it and used it in products it sold to the military. BlueRadios Inc. v. Kopin Corp. Inc.,1:16-cv-02052 (D. Colo., filed Aug. 12, 2016).

To win the trial, Gibson had to explain more than 20 highly technical trade secrets in four broad categories. One category was the device's circuitry, which he compared to a printed circuit board. "It's for a wearable computer with a head-mounted display, so it's not just a printed circuit board," he said. But making that comparison helped the jury "follow along and see [how] all the trade secrets ... work."

Lately, most of his trials have been over trade secrets, not patents. He has a number of patent cases in the works, but they are all in their early stages. "I don't get as involved until they get at least into depositions and trial."

He is next scheduled for trial in December in a dispute over trade secrets for AI-powered cameras in large garbage bins. In addition to signaling when a bin is full, the technology can warn if, for instance, a lawn chair has been dumped in with recycling. "It took the client years to develop and train the artificial intelligence model," Gibson said. "A lot of human effort goes into showing the AI what these things are. ... It takes millions of images to figure that out."

Gibson also assists colleagues in non-IP trials that still turn on technology. Two years ago, they successfully defended a dry-cleaning business sued by Catholic Charities over alleged pollution. And last year, he won a trial for a winery that sued a storage company. He had to explain to the jury "what happens to the wine as it gets too warm."

-- Don DeBenedictis