Happy February from the team at Foresight Valuation Group!
Recent patent cases have brought some big wins for plaintiffs. This may be a sign of the venerable pendulum finally swinging back in favor of patent rights. Our IP News Digest this month includes some high profile damages rulings, two of them involving Apple: Caltech has been awarded a $1.1B in damages against Apple and Broadcom at the Federal Circuit, while Apple has lost its appeal in a long running litigation with VirnetX.
This month we highlight one of our practice areas: the valuation of IP assets in divorce cases. IP (intangible) assets show up more and more in divorce cases where a spouse is a founder or an employee of a high-tech company. We highlighted some of the key steps in identifying, validating and valuing these assets in the context of marital dissolutions.
We are gearing up for two conferences in March, as listed in our
upcoming speaking events. The CON2020 in Dallas (March 15-17) is IPWatchdog's first annual conference, and I am excited to be speaking on two panels: one dealing with Unicorns and IP, and another one tackling the topic of the gender gap in innovation and funding. I will also be speaking on an IP valuation panel at the CPA Global user conference IGNITE 2020 in San Diego (March 25). Looking forward to seeing some of you in one of these events!
Warmly,
Practice Spotlight: IP Valuation in Divorce Cases
With approximately 50 percent of all U.S. (first or second) marriages ending in divorce, the proper identification and allocation of all marital assets is critical to the post-divorce well-being of both spouses. Intangible assets show up more and more in divorce cases where a spouse is a founder or an employee of a high-tech company.
In an article we published a couple of years ago, we discuss insights from our experience with valuing intellectual property in divorce cases. Identifying IP assets in marital dissolutions can be a particularly challenging task, due to the lack of full disclosure by the spouse holding the IP, which is a common occurrence (whether through ignorance, or by design) in these types of proceedings. Add to that the lack of reporting transparency associated with IP assets in the company's own financial statements, and the result is a complex process of discovery.
The US District Court for the Central District of California this week ruled that Broadcom's W-Fi chips used by Apple infringe on patents held by the California Institute of Technology, and further ruling that the companies must pay Caltech roughly $1.1 billion for damages. Apple and Broadcom plan to appeal.
Brooks Sports, Inc., a footwear, apparel and accessories company headquartered in Seattle, filed a lawsuit against Brooks Brothers Group, Inc. in federal court for breach of contract, unfair competition and trademark infringement.
The lawsuit seeks to stop Brooks Brothers from using Brooks' famous BROOKS trademark on its stores and products.
VMware's on the hook for about $237 million dollars after a federal jury found that the virtualization giant infringed on two Densify patents. Densify is a Toronto-based startup that makes cloud and container resource management software.
A U.S. appeals court on Monday denied a request by Apple Inc (
AAPL.O) that it reconsider a decision upholding a finding Apple iPhones infringed VirnetX Holding Corp patents relating to secure communications technology.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit declined to reconsider a split decision it issued on Nov. 22 in the long-running litigation.
The U.S. Department of Justice is backing Oracle Corp. in its long-running copyright dispute with Google, which will be heard March 24 at the U.S. Supreme Court.
