Kirt O’Neill and Dan Moffett Discuss Their Work on Inguran Patent Case with Law360

Akin Gump intellectual property partners Kirt O’Neill and Daniel Moffett have been quoted by Law360, in its article “Akin Gump's Local Focus Helped Land Bull Semen IP Win,” which looks at the lawyers’ multifaceted strategy that secured a multimillion-dollar victory for Inguran, LLC, also known as Sexing Technologies (ST), in federal court in Wisconsin. O’Neill led the Akin Gump team advising Inguran. To read more about the firm’s representation, please click here.

In the article, O’Neill discussed the complexities of arguing for ST—a genetics company specializing in the collection and sexing of dairy and beef cattle semen—against Wisconsin-based ABS Global Inc. in the U.S.’s dairy capital, noting the importance of focusing on the bottom line. He said, “What we have to show at the trial is in fact, even with the patent royalties assessed against infringers, the product itself has resulted in a significant overall lowering of costs to the dairy producers.”

Another challenge, the article notes, was to convince the jury to award damages for ABS’ use of its patented microfluidics and "laser kill" technology, which Inguran previous decided not to use in for safety reasons. Moffett said, “We didn’t run from the fact that we weren’t using this particular technology. We had a great approach that we think works, but we own the patents to a different approach that we will or may use in the future.”

On splitting the liability and damages suits, O’Neill noted that, though this is a rare approach taken by plaintiffs, the Akin Gump team was ultimately successful, saying, “In a case against a hometown defendant with patents on technology that relate to what I would call a hometown industry, where there are fears among the jurors about who's going to ultimately bear the cost, I actually think it worked out in our favor in this case to have a bifurcated trial.”

To read the full article, please click here.