Judge Amos Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas recently became one of the first federal judges to award treble damages for willful patent infringement under the new Supreme Court standard for enhanced damages laid out in Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. Judge Mazzant, citing Halo, enhanced the jury’s $7 million award in IP Holdings (Cayman),…
On August 17, in In re Andrew Silver, a panel of the Dallas Court of Appeals handed down a 2-1 decision refusing to recognize a patent-agent privilege. The appellate court, in affirming the trial court’s decision to order production of emails between a client and his patent agent, held that communications between clients and non-attorney patent agents…
On July 20, 2016, Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas issued a revised docket control order for patent cases removing his prior requirement that litigants must be granted permission before filing motions for summary judgment. Judge Gilstrap, who handles substantially more patent cases than any other judge in the country (32% of…
With its May 2016 decision in Baker v. DeShong, the Fifth Circuit became the most recent appeals court to relax the standard for awarding attorneys’ fees in trademark disputes. Applying the Supreme Court’s Octane Fitness ruling on fee-shifting in patent cases to Lanham Act suits, the Fifth Circuit concluded litigants need only show a case “stands out” from…
Scott Harper has been selected to present at the 7th Annual Essentials of Business Law Course, which takes place March 3-4, 2016 at the Hilton Houston Westchase Hotel in Houston, Texas. Scott’s presentation, which takes place Thursday, March 3, will provide an introduction to intellectual property concepts relating to business transactions. The conference is presented…
The Dallas litigation and intellectual property law firm of Harper & Bates LLP is pleased to announce that partner Shannon Bates have been selected to the 2015 Texas Super Lawyers list. Each year, no more than five percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive…
Shannon Bates has been selected to serve on the 2015 Continuing Legal Education planning committee for the State Bar of Texas Intellectual Property Law Section. Shannon is a partner and co-founder of Harper & Bates LLP, a Dallas-based litigation and intellectual property firm. The purpose of the committee is to identify timely topics and interesting…
Shannon Bates was selected to serve on the nominating committee of the State Bar of Texas (SBOT) Intellectual Property (IP) Law Section. Shannon is a partner and co-founder of Harper & Bates LLP, where she focuses primarily on intellectual property prosecution matters. Over the past 15 years, Shannon has been an active member and leader…
Partner Shannon Bates of the Dallas litigation and intellectual property law firm of Harper & Bates LLP served as a judge for the Southwest Regional Oral Arguments of the International Trademark Association (INTA) Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition, which took place in Dallas on Saturday February 7, 2015. Shannon also served as an oral arguments…