The lawsuit alleged that attorneys from the firm copied a court filing from a smaller firm
US law firm Winston & Strawn has settled a copyright infringement lawsuit accusing its attorneys of copying a court filing nearly word-for-word from a smaller law firm, Reuters reported.
The settlement was reached with the Hsuanyeh Law Group, a Boston-based patent law firm, as disclosed in a document filed in New York federal court. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote has since discontinued the case following the announcement of the settlement.
The lawsuit centered around allegations from Hsuanyeh Law Group that attorneys from Winston & Strawn had copied one of its legal filings in a patent lawsuit involving computer data storage technology. Both law firms were representing separate clients in related cases against Unification Technologies LLC in Texas federal court, which were later consolidated and settled.
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The controversy began after Hsuanyeh Law Group's founder, Hsuanyeh Chang, submitted a motion to dismiss the case for his client, Phison Electronics, last August. Reportedly, an attorney from Winston & Strawn complimented the filing on the same day it was filed, describing it as "impressive." The next day, Winston & Strawn submitted a nearly identical court filing on behalf of their client, Silicon Motion.
Following this, in December, Hsuanyeh initiated a copyright lawsuit against Winston & Strawn and four of its attorneys. Reuters reported that the lawsuit was a rare instance of legal action over the alleged copying of court documents, with Hsuanyeh seeking monetary damages and a judicial order to prevent Winston from copying other firms’ legal work in the future.
In its defense, Winston & Strawn argued that no legal precedent exists that copying a co-defendant's motion in court constitutes copyright infringement. This stance was outlined in an email attached to Hsuanyeh’s complaint.
Details of the settlement have not been disclosed, and representatives from both Winston & Strawn and Hsuanyeh Law Group have refrained from commenting on the matter. The attorneys involved in the case and Winston's representative in the lawsuit have also not responded to requests for comments regarding the specifics of the agreement.
