shutterstock_706146340_jejim
22 January 2020PatentsRory O'Neill

Perkins Coie named in $150m malpractice suit over patent ‘cover-up’

International law firm Perkins Coie is facing a $150 million lawsuit for alleged legal malpractice and fraud over a “cover-up” of failures to file key patent applications.

According to the suit, filed on January 17 in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, former Perkins Coie partner Sean Grygiel deceived his client Muzik Inc over his alleged failure to file key patent applications for remote-controlled headphones.

The consumer electronics company sells wireless headphones designed to be compatible with social media apps.

Muzik’s original headphones design included features now commonplace in modern smart devices such as the Apple Air Pods—and the company would be now be earning lucrative royalties if not for Perkins Coie’s “incompetent legal representation,” the complaint said.

A Perkins Coie spokesperson told WIPR that: “We do not comment on pending litigation, but be assured that we intend to defend this case vigorously.”

Grygiel, now a partner at Dentons in its New York office, was not named as a defendant in the suit. Dentons declined to comment on the suit.

Muzik hired Grygiel as its patent lawyer in 2012 when he was working at law firm Fish & Richardson.

According to the suit, he convinced the company to retain his services after he moved to Perkins Coie in 2014, citing his “unique understanding of Muzik's patent portfolio” and “encompassing strategy for protecting all of Muzik's inventions”.

Muzik said it had developed a design for a headphone system that could control devices such as a phone by voice-recognition or touch sensing technology. The music technology company said it had informed Grygiel of its discussions with “major” investors, in order to stress the importance to the company’s business of obtaining the patents.

But Grygiel’s representation of Muzik was “marred with a lack of communication, incomplete legal work, and at times outright misrepresentations,” the company said.

In one example, Muzik said Grygiel had failed to inform the company that the US Patent and Trademark Office had rejected one of the patent applications over a prior art reference.

The ‘core four’ patents

But the most serious error was Grygiel’s failure to file four key patent applications—”The Core Four”—at all, the complaint said.

He went as far as to supply Muzik with false patent application numbers to conceal his failure to file the documents, the company claimed.

Muzik only learned of the extent of Grygiel’s conduct after hiring new legal representation and receiving all paperwork pertaining to the company from Perkins Coie, the complaint said.

The electronics company would come to see the decision to retain Perkins Coie as a “fatal mistake”.

The company said that the firm had “repeatedly breached its fiduciary duties of loyalty and its duty of care owed to Muzik while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees”.

According to the complaint, Perkins Coie’s “incompetent legal representation” constituted legal malpractice, and that the firm was liable for fraud over Grygiel’s alleged misrepresentations.

The company is seeking damages of at least $150 million.

WIPR has contacted Grygiel and Fish & Richardson for comment.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.

Today's top stories:

Goya Food targets parental control app in trademark suit

Court overturns $10m Nintendo verdict

Lego claims final IP victory over Lepin in China

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

article
19 November 2014   US law firm Perkins Coie has hired a partner to its New York office.
Patents
24 July 2020   Headphone maker Koss is suing companies including Apple, Bose, and Skullcandy for allegedly infringing patents covering key elements of commonplace wireless headphone technology.