Mophie Suffers Stunning Litigation Setback, Adli Law Group, P.C. Reports

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Jan 05, 2015, 07:40 ET

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In a stunning setback in a lawsuit it initiated, mophie, Inc., the market leader for smartphone battery cases, finds itself faced with a court decision invalidating its key patent and a jury verdict finding two of its claimed trademarks not viable, and its signature "juice pack" family of marks not sufficiently strong to qualify as "famous."

Mophie filed the lawsuit in August 2013 against a number of defendants including start up Serve Global, LLC and Business Representative/entrepreneur David Shah, accusing them of infringing a key mophie patent for smart phone cases, as well as certain of mophie's claimed trademarks and copyrights. [United States District Court for the Central District of California, Case No. SA CV 13-01321 DMG].

Prior to the trial, the judge granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment and invalidated the mophie patent. Then, following a four-day trial in Los Angeles, the jury further found that mophie's asserted common law trademarks "4:11 Lock Screen" and "Circular Pattern" lacked viability as source identifiers and that mophie's signature line of "juice pack" marks were not sufficiently well known to qualify as "famous." The jury found in favor of mophie on its two copyright claims relating to product user manual and packaging, its claimed trade dress and its "juice pack" marks.

"This outcome can't be considered as anything but an unmitigated disaster for mophie, which no doubt filed the lawsuit to further cement its position as the dominant market leader in this field," observed Dr. Dariush Adli, the President of Adli Law Group, P.C., whose firm represented all of the defendants in the lawsuit. "However, the strategy clearly backfired on them, resulting in the loss of what was by far mophie's most valuable Intellectual Property asset in this litigation, mophie's patent, which gave it the legal authority to practically monopolize the field and maintain a 90% share in the market for smart phone battery cases," added Dr. Adli. The now invalidated patent was conservatively estimated to generate $100 million a year in revenue for mophie. Dr. Adli noted that "given the 15 year life that remained of the patent term before the court's invalidity ruling, the cumulative loss to mophie is easily in the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more. This loss by itself easily dwarfs the approximately $10 Million which the jury awarded mophie."

The court's decision, as well as the jury verdict, is still subject to judicial review and appeal. Dr. Adli pointed out, however, that "the real winners of this outcome are consumers, who will no longer need to pay mophie the exuberant premiums it was able to extract based on its patent monopoly." In fact, "the effects of the loss of mophie's patent monopoly are already evident in the market, as mophie is selling its products at a significant mark down from its normal price spectrum, and mophie hasn't even launched its iPhone 6 battery case yet." Dr. Adli added.

The Adli Law Group's trial team was led by Dr. Adli, and included senior counsels Bernard Jasper and Drew Sherman.

About Adli Law Group

ADLI LAW GROUP is a boutique law firm specializing in Intellectual Property, Business, Real Estate, Products Liability and Labor and Employment Law. We are located in the heart of the Business District in downtown Los Angeles with satellite offices in Dallas, London, Tokyo and Taipei.

The cornerstone of our philosophy is personal attention to clients' needs and goals and ensuring that clients receive full value for the legal expenses they incur, along with the personal attention that they deserve. Dr. Dariush Adli, the firm's founder, is a veteran of large U.S. law firms, who decided to bring the high quality practice of big law firms into the more congenial, value based and client focused atmosphere of a boutique law firm.

Adli Law Group recognizes that litigation imposes significant burdens upon our business clients. The time required to formulate strategies, investigate claims or defenses, review and verify pleadings and respond to discovery requests can easily distract employees or entrepreneurs from attending to other needs of their business. Our goal is not merely to be outside counsel to our clients, but to understand each client's business needs and goals to help establish a long-term, client focused relationship. Our clients appreciate the high quality of the services they receive at substantially lower hourly rates than those of our larger, national law firm competitors. As a nimble, friendly boutique firm, we can also offer cost-effective, alternative billing arrangements to help our clients manage their litigation expenses. Combining its talent with a focus on each client's business and intellectual property needs allows Adli Law Group to offer high-quality representation at reasonable rates.

The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles and has satellite offices in London, Tokyo, Taipei and Dallas. Adli Law Group is best known for its successful representation of a wide spectrum of corporate clients, ranging from multi-billion dollar international conglomerates to small startup businesses, in their business and intellectual property matters around the globe. On the entertainment front, the firm made headlines by representing Croatian author James Braddock in his lawsuit against superstar actress Angelina Jolie and her studio for copyright violation relating to the critically acclaimed 2011 movie "In the Land of Blood and Honey."

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SOURCE Adli Law Group, P.C.