David K. Mroz

Finnegan was hired for this appeal after TCL received an unfavorable judgment of willful infringement, which resulted in a damages award of over $110 million. After Finnegan convinced the Federal Circuit that the claims were patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101, the court reversed the district court’s ruling of no invalidity, vacated the entire judgment against TCL, and awarded costs to TCL. Based on that award, Finnegan further persuaded the Eastern District of Texas to tax $2.35 million in costs.

Finnegan represented Emergy, Inc., d/b/a Meati Foods in a trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract, and correction of inventorship case against The Better Meat Company (BMC) and Augustus Pattillo involving alternative meat made from mycelium.

Emergy alleged that Augustus Pattillo stole its trade secrets on the cultivation and production of mycelium that he learned while working as a lab technician for Emergy’s founders, misused them in his work with BMC, breached his nondisclosure agreement with Emergy, and improperly filed patent applications on Emergy’s technology and assigned them to BMC.

BMC filed claims of tortious interference and unfair competition against Emergy, which Emergy succeeded in striking under California’s anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) statute. After prevailing under the anti-SLAPP statute, Emergy was statutorily entitled to recover its reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs for defending against BMC’s stricken claims of tortious interference and unfair competition

Early in the litigation, Emergy defeated BMC’s motion to dismiss Emergy’s trade secret misappropriation and breach of implied contract claims. Emergy later defeated BMC’s motion for summary judgment on Emergy’s trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract, and breach of implied contract claims. The case settled soon after the Court issued its summary judgment ruling.

Represented patent owner Aqua Products/Fluidra in appeal involving robotic pool cleaners; successfully petitioned Federal Circuit for en banc review of statutory burden of proof issue; en banc court changed legal standard and vacated invalidity ruling against Fluidra.

Represented Maglula Ltd. in a district court litigation alleging that Amazon committed patent, trademark, and copyright infringement through its sale of counterfeit consumer products. After Maglula won all claim construction disputes, and after the Court denied Amazon’s summary judgment motion and found that “Amazon’s attempts to avoid liability” would “have minimal impact before a jury,” the parties entered into an agreement and the case was dismissed.

In an appeal involving trocar devices, obtained an affirmance from the Federal Circuit of the district court’s finding of no infringement.

Successfully represented BMW of North America LLC in a Federal Circuit appeal brought by Omega Patents LLC involving vehicle remote start technology, obtaining an affirmance of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s findings of invalidity in an inter partes review filed by Finnegan. The appeal confirmed that all claims of the patent Omega asserted against BMW in the District Court of Delaware were invalid.