Our first runner-up this week is Patrick Arenz a partner, at Robins Kaplan who led a trial team representing Willis Electric Co. Ltd. in a patent fight with Polygroup—the world’s leading maker of artificial Christmas trees. In what appears to be the largest patent verdict in Minnesota history, jurors in Minneapolis awarded Willis $42.5 million in damages last week after finding Polygroup infringed the patent behind Willis’s prelit One Plug Tree. The jury found that Polygroup’s infringement was willful, opening the door for a request to U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, who oversaw the trial, for as much as triple that amount. The Robins Kaplan team also included Emily Niles, Jessica Gutierrez, Brenda Joly and Prateek Viswanathan.
Matthew Parrott and his team at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson got a win at New York’s Appellate Division, First Department for Reuben Brothers Ltd. as the court lifted an injunction that had blocked the UCC foreclosure sale involving the redevelopment of the historic Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. The appellate court held last week that the claims brought by the plaintiff—the junior-most mezzanine lender that invested $450 million in the project—ran counter to the governing inter-creditor agreement and the plaintiff could not show irreparable harm. The Fried Frank team also includes special counsel Justin Santolli and associate Shira Sandler.
