Arent Fox Said to Win Software Patent Infringement Dispute for Acronis

Arent Fox LLP patent attorneys Janine A. Carlan, Michael Fainberg, and Jasjit S. Vidwan represented Acronis International GmbH in litigation that resulted in the plaintiff being barred from further attempts to assert the patent against the Singapore-based company’s software. (the decision)

“We are very pleased with the judge’s decision. Rather than giving in to meritless claims, we fought hard and were rewarded,” said Carlan. “We wanted to make sure that they could not attack Acronis, its affiliates, and its customers, again.“

In November 2015, Uniloc Corp. filed a patent infringement claim against Acronis before the US District Court of the Eastern District of Texas. Rather than settling, Acronis fought the claims in district court and challenged the asserted patent by petitioning for inter partes review at the U.S.P.T.O.

In reaching a motion to dismiss, Uniloc agreed that ‘Plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and anyone acting on their behalf, are estopped to sue Defendant, Defendant’s affiliates, and Defendant’s customers for any claim of patent infringement, direct or indirect, with respect to the U.S. Patent No. 7,024,696.‘

“Arent Fox will rigorously represent its clients against suits by non-practicing entities like Uniloc in federal courts and the Patent and Trademark Office using creative defensive and offensive legal strategies,” said Fainberg.

“It’s not unheard of in the IT industry for non-practicing entities to abuse the legal system claiming credit for other vendor’s work. Acronis has stood its ground making it clear that the company is determined to fight to win and will continue to do so with any would-be vendor challenging Acronis’ innovative technology,” said James Tucker Bradley, general counsel, Acronis.

With an IP portfolio of 150 patents and patent applications, the companyhas more than five million consumers and 500,000 business customers in over 150 countries, using Acronis backup, DR, storage, and secure file sync and share solutions. The firm delivers easy, fast, complete and affordable data protection of all files, applications and OSs across any environment – virtual, physical, cloud, and mobile.

Arent Fox is a nationally recognized leader in patent litigation. The firm has been involved in hundreds of suits involving patent infringement and related IP issues. The patent litigation group includes a combination of patent lawyers with varied technical backgrounds and seasoned trial lawyers focusing only on patent litigation. In the past two decades, Arent Fox patent litigators have been lead counsel in more than 100 patent cases in numerous jurisdictions.