Aldo Badini Speask on Patent and Antitrust Cases in State Courts

Winston & Strawn intellectual property partner Aldo Badini presented "State Your Federal Claim: Are States Becoming the New Patent and Antitrust Battlegrounds?" on October 16, 2013 in Palo Alto and October 17, 2013 in San Francisco.

Federal courts historically have been the fora for battles under the patent laws and federal antitrust statutes. Now, the state courts and state legislatures are trying to take center stage. This year in Vermont, the legislature passed a law against patent trolls. Attorneys General in Nebraska, Minnesota, and Vermont are moving against bad-faith assertions of federal IP rights, and are reaching across state lines to do it. And complementing these initiatives, the U.S. Supreme Court's Holmes v. Vornado decision confirms that States have broad powers to adjudicate what were once thought to be exclusively federal causes of action.

This ACC CLE program focused on these developments, which should interest all practitioners who may want to commence (or have to defend) a complex federal question in the State court system.