The Steel Wars Continue...

In some non-video game law news: an update to the Steel Wars…

Three months ago I wrote about an important victory for my clients, Chico and Leszek, two polish immigrants and small business owners.

👷‍♂️ Chico and Leszek started a steel fabrication company called Seal4Safti, which was involved in the manufacture of a fire stopping product for one of its customers. The product is used in commercial building construction. 🚧

⚖ Seal4Safti then got swept into a long-running patent dispute with a series of large steel manufacturers including California Expanded Metal Products Co (CEMCO) who claimed they had the rights to the fire stopping product.

💸 Ultimately, after years of patent litigation, a jury in California found that that the fire stopping product infringed CEMCO’s patents, and CEMCO was awarded nearly $600k.

🤕 This effectively bankrupted Seal4Safti.

CEMCO filed a motion to hold Chico and Leszek personally liable for the judgment. The Court denied the motion in June this year (phew!).

➡ That's where this story starts.

☣ CEMCO then filed ANOTHER motion, requesting that the Court reconsider its decision. CEMCO claimed that we had submitted "false" declarations--i.e., that our clients lied in their declarations.

🥂 I'm excited to report that we prevailed again!

🤚 The Court denied CEMCO's motion, writing that: "Instead of pointing to facts the Court failed to consider, [CEMCO] regurgitates evidence submitted with the original motion. . ." (Ouch.)

These are potentially life changing rulings for our clients, and I'm so happy for them and proud of the work we did on this case (which is now hopefully over).

Again, Joseph Levy, was the real star of this movie. His brief was apparently so persuasive the court cancelled oral argument. And Maria Gomez + Michelle Robles played an important supporting rule polishing up the brief and helping with the filings (no easy task in the Central District).

Plus a beautiful fall day at our offices in Portland!