Richard S. Taffet

For close to 35 years Richard has tried cases in state and federal courts, as well as in arbitration proceedings; represented clients’ interests in appeals to numerous Federal Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court of the United States; and has advised clients in connection with a broad range of competition and intellectual property matters. Richard also regularly assists clients in matters before the United States Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, as well as foreign competition and other regulatory bodies, including in European and Asian jurisdictions.

Richard is also recognized as a leading counsel and thought leader in connection with matters involving technology standards development. For more than 30 years, Richard has represented standard setting organizations (SSOs) and technology consortia, as well as participants in such bodies in connection with the development and use of SSO patent and intellectual property rights (IPR) policies, licensing and technology transfer strategies, and related commercial and antitrust issues. These representations have included the development of SSO and consortia IPR and patent policies, numerous litigations, advocacy to US and foreign legislative bodies and enforcement and regulatory agencies, and extensive legal and economic writing and speaking endeavors.

Richard is noted in Chambers USA “as a proficient and respected antitrust and IP lawyer,” and for his “excellent strategic views and his ability to always think one step ahead.”

Before joining Morgan Lewis, Richard was a senior litigation partner of another international law firm, where he was a member of the executive board.

Intellectual Property

• Sunbeam Products, Inc. v. Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc. et al. (Eastern District of Virginia) — Represented Sunbeam Products, Inc. (d/b/a Jarden Consumer Solutions) as plaintiff in a patent infringement case filed against Homeland Housewares, LLC et al. involving blender patents
• Sharp Corporation v. Dell Inc. (District of New Jersey) — Representing Sharp in trademark infringement action against Dell Computer regarding Dell’s use of the designation “UltraSharp”; Dell used the designation on products that are in direct competition with Sharp, such as monitors, and sells them on its website, where it also sells Sharp flat-panel televisions
• L&L Wings, Inc. v. Marco-Destin, Inc., et al. (Southern District of New York) — Obtained summary judgment for plaintiff on trademark infringement claims involving marks and trade dress used in retail sales
• Audio MPEG et al. v. SanDisk Corporation (Eastern District of Virginia) — Defended SanDisk in connection with patent infringement claims by the Audio MPEG patent pool and in asserting antitrust counterclaims challenging the pool
• SanDisk Corporation v. Lucent Technologies Inc. and Alcatel-Lucent, S.A. (Northern District of California) — Representing SanDisk as declaratory judgment plaintiff in connection with encoding-technology patents
• GIV v. IBM et al. (Eastern District of Virginia) — Representing Lenovo in a patent infringement case involving keyboard cursor control sticks
• International Automated Systems v. IBM et al. (District of Utah) — Representing Lenovo in a patent infringement case involving fingerprint identification systems

Antitrust

• TruePosition v. Ericsson et al (Eastern District of Pennsylvania) — Representing the European Telecommunications Standards Institute in connection with claims alleging abuse of the standards development process
• PNY v. SanDisk (Northern District of California) — Representing SanDisk in connection with claims directed to certain licensing conduct
• Oliver v. Panasonic et al. (Northern District of California) — Representing SanDisk Corporation in putative class action asserting claims relating to licensing and standards development by consortium directed to development of flash technologies and products
• In re TFT-LCD Antitrust Litigation (Northern District of California) — Representing Sharp Corp. and Sharp Electronics Corp. in connection with class action cases pending in the Northern District of California related to alleged price fixing of TFT-LCD panels that are used in TVs, computer monitors, laptops, cellphones and other products
• In re Flash Memory Antitrust Litigation (Northern District of California) — Representing SanDisk in a class action price-fixing case involving flash memory
• Broadcom v. QUALCOMM (District of New Jersey) — Representing Qualcomm in monopolization and attempted monopolization case related to wireless technologies
• MM Global v. Dow Chemical et al. (District of Connecticut) — Represented plaintiff in resale price maintenance action
• FTC Investigation — Represented subjects of confidential investigations involving standards-setting activities
• Foreign Competition Law Proceedings — Representing U.S.-based companies in confidential proceedings by the European Commission, Japan Fair Trade Commission and Korean Fair Trade Commission

Commercial

• Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions v. Hall et al. (District of Maryland) — Secured a successful jury verdict for plaintiff on claims of breach of fiduciary duty, conversion and tortious interference
• IFAST Ltd. v. Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (District of Maryland) — Represented defendant in breach of contract and tort action, with action dismissed on the pleadings
• US JVC v. Outdoor Systems (New York Supreme Court) — Represented plaintiff in successful jury trial on breach of contract claim