Rich Vasquez represents a range of clients, from large publicly traded technology manufacturers to venture-backed emerging companies and individual inventors. His practice focuses on litigation and litigation avoidance, with a particular emphasis on assisting companies involved in Taiwan and China supply chain management in the computer industry. He has served as lead counsel for many clients in major jury trials in the Eastern District of Texas since April 2009. The firm has a busy trial practice, handling five successful federal court trials in the past 2.5 years. Rich was lead counsel for three Taiwan clients, who on July 25, 2018 obtained a Federal Circuit reversal of a $14M jury verdict by ruling that the asserted patent by The Trustees of Boston University — on which 40 companies had paid millions of dollars in settlements — was invalid.
Rich has prosecuted and defended complex matters including patent, copyright and trademark infringement, trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and other business torts. Rich has been selected to Super Lawyers 11 times, including in 2018. Prior to founding Vasquez Benisek & Lindgren LLP, Rich was the Business & Technology practice group head for Morgan Miller Blair. He started his career at Bartko Welsh Tarrant & Miller, where he represented, among others, Ferdinand Marcos and executives at then #1 American Savings & Loan, in RICO lawsuits.
Representative Matters
- Lead counsel for defendants in Trustees of Boston University v. Epistar, Everlight and Lite-On, an LED patent infringement jury trial in the District of Massachusetts, where the district court conditionally slashed the jury verdict from $13.7 million to $2.4M and granted a new trial on damages and denied a $13 million attorneys fee demand, before the Federal Circuit reversed, finding the patent invalid for lack of enablement.
- Lead counsel for defendant in Nichia v. Everlight Electronics, an LED competitor patent infringement trial, where the court granted no damages and refused to issue an injunction after finding infringement. Currently briefed and awaiting decision in the Federal Circuit court of appeals.
- Served as lead counsel for defendants in Chrimar v. Accton Technology Corp, EdgeCore Networks and Costar Technologies, a Power over Ethernet (PoE) patent infringement action, which settled in January 2017 the weekend before trial started after district court granted Daubert relief against plaintiff’s damages expert.
- Lead counsel for defendants in Anza v. SMC Networks and EdgeCore Networks, a patent infringement case in the Southern District of California, where the court has granted successive motions to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), before the case settled.
- Served as lead Counsel for plaintiff SMC Networks v. Hitron Technologies, a trade secrets theft case against an OEM supplier who hired plaintiff’s CEO and CTO, filed in the Central District of California, which settled on the eve of trial after defendants were unable to obtain any dismissal of plaintiff’s UTSA and punitive damages claims, or any Daubert relief against plaintiff’s damages expert who had opined damages at more than $20M.
- Served as lead counsel for plaintiff in Nonend Inventions v. Spotify, in District of Delaware patent infringement case, which settled before jury trial after defendant abandoned peer-to-peer technology delivery in the face of plaintiff’s claims and damages report being cleared for trial after post-trial motions.
- Served as lead counsel for LG Electronics USA, Enterasys Networks and SMC Networks in patent infringement action in the District of Delaware, in Chalumeau Power Systems v. Cisco.
- Served as lead counsel for three wireless network equipment companies accused of patent infringement in the Northern District of Alabama federal court and transferred to Northern District of California federal court, in NorthPeak Wireless LLC v. 3Com, et .al., and obtained judgment of non-infringement on plaintiff’s Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) modulation 802.11 wireless systems, which was affirmed on appeal.
- Served as lead counsel for defendant software engineer in a copyright infringement action venued in the Northern District of California, which settled for payment to the defendant, after a source code inspection corroborated client’s denial of liability.
- Served as lead counsel for Lineage Power (formerly a division of ATT and Lucent), in dueling patent infringement cases SynQor v. Artesyn, et al. and Lineage v. SynQor involving power conversion technology, before Judge John T. Ward in the Eastern District of Texas. Cases settled before second trial.
- Served as lead counsel representing America’s largest radio network, Westwood One (NASDAQ ticker symbol: WWON), http://www.westwoodone.com, in the Eastern District of Virginia in patent infringement case brought by Triangle Software over visual traffic information technology.
- Served as lead counsel in the successful defense of four wireless network equipment companies accused of patent infringement in the Eastern District of Texas federal court in CSIRO v. Toshiba, et al. where plaintiff claimed its patent reads on the IEEE 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n (draft) wireless standards.
- Served as lead counsel defending two network switch companies accused of patent infringement in Eastern District of Texas in Fenner Investments, LLC v. 3Com, et.al.
- Served as lead counsel for network equipment company accused of patent infringement in the Eastern District of Texas federal court in Network 1 v. Cisco Systems, Inc., et al. where plaintiff claims its patent reads on the IEEE 802.3au standard for “power over Ethernet.”
- Served as lead counsel for network equipment company accused of patent infringement in the District of South Carolina federal court in Optimumpath LLC v. Cisco Linksys LLC, et al.
- Served as lead counsel for network equipment maker in WIFI patent infringement case, The PACid Group, LLC v. Best Buy Co., Inc. et al., Case No. 6:10-cv-00370-LED, filed in July 2010, before Judge Leonard Davis in the Eastern District of Texas.
- Served as lead counsel in four separate successful CA state court plaintiff cases in the past ten years for fraud arising out of defective IC component concealment against four US listed companies, recovering a total of $15 million US for Taiwan stock exchange listed clients.
- Successfully defended five (5) network equipment manufacturers in District of Delaware federal court and the International Trade Commission (ITC) from allegations of patent infringement in Proxim v. 3Com, and In Re Wireless Network Interface Cards, which alleged its patents read on 802.11b wireless systems.
- Successfully defended text book authors in copyright infringement case in Northern District of California federal court.
- Successfully defended European business equipment in CA state court jury trial from alleged $40M fraudulent earn-out promise from merger and acquisitions deal.
- Successfully defended in District of Washington federal court corporate client from Rule 10b5 fraud claims arising out of alleged illegal round-trip advertising swaps with AOL.
- Defended building material supplier corporate client from $200M Qui Tam claim in CA state courts.
- Team member which defended Ferdinand Marcos from RICO claims in Southern District of New York, Central California and Hawaii arising from alleged looting of Philippines treasury.
- Defended public Savings and Loan corporation directors and officers from alleged RICO claims arising from 1987 recession, in Eastern District of California.