WSJ(3/17) NTP's Law Firm Gets $200 Mln In BlackBerry Case
(From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL) By Peter Lattman
The Washington, D.C., law firm that represented patent-holding company NTP Inc. in its nearly five-year legal battle with Research In Motion Ltd. earned roughly $200 million in fees from the case.
Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP received approximately one-third of the $612.5 million settlement that RIM agreed to pay NTP to avert a potential court-ordered shutdown of its popular BlackBerry wireless email devices. Roughly $400 million has been divvied up between about two dozen NTP shareholders. NTP was founded in 1992 by Donald Stout, a patent lawyer, and Thomas Campana, a Chicago inventor who died in 2004, to protect Mr. Campana's patents.
Wiley Rein's James Wallace, the lead lawyer for NTP, said, "A lot of effort was invested in the case and we're very pleased to have delivered for our client one of the largest patent settlements ever."
"They deserve what they got," said Mr. Stout. "Wiley Rein earned it."
The firm represented NTP on a contingency-fee basis, in which lawyers typically receive one-third of any settlement or judgment. The arrangement generally carries more risk for a firm than hourly fees, as final payment depends on the outcome of the case. Had Wiley Rein charged NTP at an hourly rate, the way it typically bills for legal services, the tab would have been a fraction of what it got.
The $200 million fee, reported earlier this week in the Legal Times newspaper, exceeds Wiley Rein's 2004 revenue, which totaled $140 million, according to the American Lawyer magazine. The firm has 250 lawyers, 67 of whom have ownership stakes in the partnership. Known for its telecommunications practice, Wiley Rein was founded in 1983 when 39 lawyers left the Washington office of Chicago's Kirkland & Ellis to start their own firm. Mr. Wallace was a founding partner.
Also enjoying a big payout from the settlement are a group of lawyers at Mr. Stout's law firm, Antonelli, Terry, Stout & Krauss LLP. Of the roughly two dozen NTP shareholders, about half are attorneys at Antonelli Terry, an Alexandria, Va., firm with patent expertise.
Hunton & Williams also worked for NTP in the RIM litigation. The Richmond, Va., law firm served as Wiley Rein's local counsel in the NTP lawsuit, filed in 2001 in federal court in Richmond, and worked on portions of the settlement. NTP paid Hunton & Williams on an hourly basis.
The lawsuit alleged that RIM's wireless email device infringed on several patents owned by NTP. In 2002 a jury found that the BlackBerry violated NTP's patents. RIM fought to stave off the threat of a court-ordered injunction and convince the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to review the validity of NTP's patents. Despite the settlement, the patent office will continue its review.
Mr. Wallace is busy preparing for his next patent-infringement trial, on Apr. 3 in a federal court in New York. While away from the home office, Mr. Wallace plans to communicate with his Wiley Rein colleagues via his BlackBerry, which he acquired from NTP after it was used as a trial exhibit in the RIM case.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-16-06 1947ET
Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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