Profit From Your Patent Litigation Contingency Fee Agreements

By Tammie Caldwell


As a patent owner, you could win a lawsuit against infringement on your technology or idea. An offender would try to prove that your patent is either unenforceable, no breach has occurred or is invalid. Attorneys charge high fees to prosecute these kinds of lawsuits. You can drastically reduce legal fees through patent litigation contingency fee agreements.

You get a patent as public recognition with restriction rights on the use of your invention or idea. Someone infringes on these rights by selling, using or making your invention without your express permission. You are engaging in patent litigation when you sue a person who has infringed on your patent.

Taking advantage of contingent fee arrangements reduces out of pocket costs. In such an arrangement, the attorney deducts their fees from a settlement amount. Certain expenses, however, require out of pocket payment such as expert witness hiring, travel, transcripts, filing fees and conduction of depositions.

Such an arrangement gives aggrieved inventors opportunities to conduct lawsuits against parties that have breached their intellectual property. They could not have afforded this in the first place. An inventor also reduces chances of losing such litigation because they pay their lawyers against results and not hours of work. Such arrangements highly motivate lawyers to settle lawsuits if it best suits their clients.

During the litigation process, the defendant and their attorney could settle the case by offering a settlement amount lower than that sought by the plaintiff. Weakness of the suit appearing may make an attorney advice their client to settle. Conversely, if a defense lawyer is sure of winning, they can advise a client to wait out the full trial because their settlement amount would be bigger.

On engagement to litigate on a contingent fee arrangement, intellectual property litigation lawyers perform optimally. They make sure it is cost effective and takes the shortest time possible. This contrasts with lawyers whose fees are chargeable by the time taken. Such lawyers conduct numerous and long depositions. They engage in long proceedings while sending many attorneys to hearings or conferences. Such activities prolong the hours chargeable to a client in the lawsuit. These kind of proceedings rarely occur when law firms charge their clients on arrangements based on contingency fees.

When you present your case to your attorney during initial consultations, intellectual property infringement legal practitioners will carefully evaluate your case. They will attempt to unveil how big a settlement they would squeeze from your case. Should it be weak, lack credibility or have issues, they will decline to take the case. Should they do so; the reason will be their confidence of winning with an investment on adequate effort.

Your attorney needs all the help they can get from you, which gives them better chances of success in the lawsuit. You would be prudent to provide all requested information immediately. Having a wonderful working relationship with your lawyer during a lawsuit about breach of your intellectual property rights is vital. It will raise your odds of winning a big settlement and large fees for both of you.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment