Akin Gump Wins Multimillion-Dollar Patent Case on Behalf of Inguran, LLC
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(San Antonio) – A team from Akin Gump achieved a multimillion-dollar victory in a patent case in federal court in Wisconsin on behalf of Inguran, LLC., also known as Sexing Technologies (ST).
Following a five-day trial, a jury returned a complete verdict in favor of ST, a genetics company specializing in the collection and sexing of dairy and beef cattle semen, finding that the defendant, ABS Global Inc., infringed three of its patents related to laser-based flow cytometry technology for sperm cell sorting, all for use in mammalian gender selection.
After just one hour of deliberation, the jury awarded past damages of $8.6 million, with future royalties owed until patents expire in 2024 on each unit (dose of semen) sold post-verdict. The award was five times the amount suggested by the defendant and 75 percent of what ST requested. Future royalties are expected to exceed $20 million. The jury also returned a no-liability verdict on ABS’s counterclaim of breach of a five-year service contract, for which ABS claimed damages of $6.5 million
Intellectual property partner Kirt O’Neill led the Akin Gump team representing ST at trial. He was joined by intellectual property partner Daniel Moffett, counsel Clayton Matheson and Andy Rosbrook, and associates Thomas Landers and Dorian Ojemen.
This is the second time that Mr. O’Neill has led an Akin Gump team on behalf of ST in a case against ABS, which was one of ST’s largest customers. In 2016, ABS sued ST for alleged antitrust violations. The jury found no violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, but did determine that ABS infringed valid claims of ST’s patents and materially breached the parties’ agreement. Mr. O’Neill was named by The American Lawyer as its Litigator of the Week for his work in that case. (Click here to learn more.)
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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