Nate Dilger
Partner

Illustrative Professional Experience

• Defended major supplier to global appliance OEMs against claims that the supplier infringed two patents held by a competitor.
• Litigated major patent infringement dispute involving computerized casino games and federal and state law antitrust counterclaims. The client’s potential damages, without trebling, total approximately $500 million. The case is currently on appeal to the Federal Circuit.
• Litigated patent infringement claims relating to devices and techniques for performing minimally invasive surgical procedures.
• Defended a manufacturer of hardware logic emulation systems against patent infringement claims brought by several key competitors in a long-running patent dispute. The case against the client was eventually dismissed after and the competitors were ordered to pay more than $5 million in fees and costs to the client after Nate’s team proved that the patentee had fabricated key evidence in an effort to support the validity of the asserted patents. More information regarding this widely-reported case can be found here.
• Represented a major telescope manufacturer in several patent infringement lawsuits involving computer-controlled telescopes. The core patents at issue covered a groundbreaking method for auto-aligning telescopes. More information regarding this dispute can be found here.
• Represented a manufacturer of optoelectronic transceivers and surface emitting lasers in a series of patent infringement lawsuits relating to optoelectronic components for use in multi-gigabit fiber optic telecommunications networks.
• Litigated patent infringement claims relating to cardioplegic solutions infused into the human heart to minimize cardiac muscle damage during stopped-heart surgery. After the client won summary judgment of willful infringement based on the patent claims as corrected by a 2001 Certificate of Correction, the Federal Circuit reversed, holding that the Certificate of Correction was invalid and remanding for trial based on the uncorrected original claims. The Federal Circuit’s ruling can be found here.
• Defended patent infringement claims relating to techniques and structures for manufacturing blow-molded plastic furniture.
  Defended manufacturer against patent infringement claims involving solid-surface building materials.
• Managed the intellectual property assets of a former Silicon Valley high-speed Internet service provider. This included representing the former ISP during patent litigations between creditor trusts and accused infringers, including claims brought against Microsoft for infringement of a patent on a method for automatically adding hypertext links to documents. Also represented the former ISP during major litigation brought by the creditor trusts against the former ISP’s controlling shareholders, including AT&T and Comcast. The claims brought by the creditor trusts, which included breach of fiduciary duties, misappropriation of trade secrets, and patent infringement, eventually settled after Comcast and AT&T agreed to pay the trusts $400 million – one of the largest tech-related settlements ever. More information about this settlement can be found here.

• Successfully defended major international media company against DMCA, Communications Act, RICO, Lanham Act, and state law claims based on the alleged piracy of a competitor’s satellite broadcast security system. After six years of litigation, five weeks of trial, and only a single day of deliberations, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of the client in the widely-watched litigation. While competitor had sought nearly $1.6 billion in damages, the jury awarded only a mere $45.69 in actual damages and the minimum statutory damages of $1500. The client’s victory in this widely-watched case was named one of the Top Ten Defense Verdicts of 2008 by the Los Angeles Daily Journal. More.
• Represented major computer chip manufacturer against former employees in lawsuit involving theft of trade secrets, violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and common law claims. The former employees had left to start a competing company, and had taken numerous confidential documents, materials and other trade secrets. The district court granted the client’s request for an emergency TRO, preventing any further distribution of the misappropriated materials and freezing the assets of the newly-formed company. More information regarding this case can be found here.

Arbitrations

• Acted as first chair counsel during arbitration of breach of contract claims brought by consulting firm against a former customer. At the conclusion of a five-day hearing, the arbitrator rejected all of the defenses raised by the defendant and awarded the client both the full amount of its requested damages as well as its attorneys’ fees.

Professional Admissions

Admitted, California; Ohio

Admitted to Practice, U.S. District Court,
Central and Northern
districts of California;
U.S. Court of Appeals,
Federal Court

Registered to Practice

U.S. Patent & Trademark Office

Member

O.C. Patent Law Association;

American Intellectual Property Law Association;

O.C. Bar Association

Education

Ohio State University College of Law;
J.D., 1997. cum laude

Practice Areas

Intellectual Property Litigation