Download the hardcopy of the alert: Illinois Supreme Court to Consider Whether State Court Has Jurisdiction Over Legal Malpractice Case Involving Patent Law
On November 30, 2011, the Illinois Supreme Court accepted the petition for leave to appeal in Magnetek, Inc. v. Kirkland and Ellis, LLP. Defendant law firm represented plaintiff client in a patent infringement action filed against the client by an inventor. After an arbitrator ruled against the client, the client paid a substantial sum to settle the inventor’s claim. In its legal malpractice complaint, the client alleged that the law firm was negligent in failing to investigate the inventor’s misconduct before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that would have prevented the issuance of his patent.
The law firm moved to dismiss, relying on Premier Networks v. Stadheim & Grear, 395 Ill. App. 3d 629 (2009), in which the appellate court held that Illinois state courts do not have jurisdiction over legal malpractice actions involving patent law. The Magnetek court distinguished, and declined to follow Premier Networks on the ground that the plaintiff in that case was also the plaintiff in the underlying action at issue there and lost. To decide the legal malpractice case, the court would have to retry the infringement action. In Magnetek, however, the patent issues did not have to be retried in the legal malpractice case because a federal court, in unrelated litigation involving the inventor, had ruled that the inventor’s patent was unenforceable.
Download to read: Illinois Appellate Court’s decision in Magnetek, Inc. v. Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, 2011 IL App (1st) 101067.
For further information, please contact Christine Olson McTigue or your regular Hinshaw attorney.
Download the hardcopy of the alert: Illinois Supreme Court to Consider Whether State Court Has Jurisdiction Over Legal Malpractice Case Involving Patent Law
This alert has been prepared by Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP to provide information on recent legal developments of interest to our readers. It is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. |