April 23, 2015

LOS ANGELES DAILY JOURNAL

By Joshua Sebold

PALO ALTO – Patent litigator James C. Otteson has disbanded his firm, Agility IP Law LLP, after five years of operation, and led his group of eight intellectual property attorneys to Arnold & Porter LLP’s Palo Alto office.

The move significantly bolsters Arnold & Porter’s presence in a highly contested region and further illustrates the thirst for intellectual property experts in California, observers said.

In addition to Otteson, former Agility attorneys David A. Caine, Thomas T. Carmack and Philip W. Marsh joined Arnold & Porter as partners.

Otteson and his group will reunite with their former colleagues, Michael A. Berta and James A. DiBoise, who joined Arnold & Porter from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC in 2011. Otteson left Wilson to launch Agility in 2010, citing an interest in taking more plaintiff-side work and offering clients lower billing rates.

Arnold & Porter opened its Palo Alto office in 2009 by grabbing intellectual property expert Ginger R. Dreger and her team of 13 attorneys from Goodwin Procter LLP.

Otteson said he and his group are excited to rejoin their former partners and Arnold & Porter Chairman Tom Milch said Berta’s and DiBoise’s high opinion of the group was a driving force in the deal.

Solana Beach legal recruiter Larry Watanabe, who brokered the Berta and Dreger moves, said Otteson’s change of venue “provides further evidence of major law firms’ appetite and desire in the IP patent litigation area, when many earlier in the year predicted there was going to be a slowdown.”

He added that intellectual property “is probably accounting for 70 percent of high-end movement in the lateral market and I think this is going to continue.”

Otteson said he enjoyed running his own ship but added that joining a firm based in Washington, D.C. would be a boon for his group’s International Trade Commission practice and being able to offer clients additional services beyond intellectual property would also be advantageous.

Agility IP was successful in winning cases. But he said juggling five major trials at once in 2013, four of which the firm won, made it difficult to keep up with client development in a small boutique setting.

Among other victories at Agility IP, Otteson helped small game company Innovention Toys LLC win $4.7 million along with $2 million in attorney fees against industry titan MGA Entertainment Inc. in an infringement case. He also helped Cupertino-based Technology Properties Ltd. LLC win a $958,560 verdict against smartphone manufacturing giant HTC Corp..

“Especially at a small firm, it is a blessing and a curse,” Otteson said. “It’s great to have that work but when you’re doing one trial after another over a 15 or 18 month period like we did, it’s tough to keep things in the pipeline.”

Milch said Arnold & Porter plans to keep expanding its presence in the region.

“Silicon Valley is a challenging marketplace and we recognize that,” he said. “We’re interested in all aspects of intellectual property, corporate transactions and litigation practices.”

He added that life sciences have become a particular area of focus in the San Francisco office, making that another logical growth area.