Patent Infringement Opinions of Patent Counsel and Waiver of Privilege

A colleague of mine recently wrote an excellent article on willful patent infringement and the effects of patent counsel opinions, as well as potential waiver of privilege issues.

Recently many in-house counsel changed their patent infringement opinion practices in light of the “no adverse inference” decision in Knorr-Bremse Systeme Fuer Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH v. Dana Corp. In fact, some commentators have suggested that the Knorr-Bremse decision would result in fewer accused infringers seeking an opinion of counsel to defend against a charge of willful infringement. However, recent decisions show that a competent and timely sought opinion of counsel remains crucial to avoiding a finding of willfulness.

Read the entire article here.