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Overview

Rick Lyon is a partner at Dovel & Luner.  Rick’s practice focuses on commercial litigation and intellectual property.

Rick is a graduate of Stanford University (B.S. in Biological Sciences, 2000) and Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 2003).  After law school, Rick practiced at Irell & Manella until he joined Dovel & Luner in 2009.  Rick has successfully litigated cases on behalf of a wide range of clients, including individuals, non-profit research centers, small technology start-ups, and Fortune 500 companies.

Education

  • Harvard Law School, (J.D., cum laude, 2003)
  • Stanford University, in Biological Sciences, (B.S., 2000)

Prior Associations

  • Irell & Manella

Notable Cases

Turned a Federal Circuit affirmance of no infringement into a win.  David Gelernter, professor of computer science at Yale and founder of Mirror Worlds Technologies, invented and patented a novel document storage, search, and display technology.

Before hiring Dovel & Luner, Mirror Worlds filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas accusing Apple’s OSX operating systems of patent infringement.  This ended poorly for Mirror Worlds—judgment of non-infringement entered by the district court and affirmed by the Federal Circuit.  That’s when Mirror Worlds came to Dovel & Luner for help.  We determined that the non-infringement judgment was premised on a failure of proof, not a finding that Apple’s products differ from the claimed invention.  We then filed a new lawsuit in the same court asserting the same patent against Apple.  Not surprisingly, Apple asserted that the case would be thrown out on preclusion grounds.  But we turned the tables on Apple.   We defeated Apple’s preclusion motions and won our own motion precluding Apple from challenging the patent’s validity.  We then built a winning case that settled a few days before trial was to commence.  An article about the outcome of the case is available here.

Forced the financial industry to respect the little guy.  In the mid-1990s, insurance salesman Richard Libman developed and patented new technologies to prepare and deliver targeted advertisements for financial products.  By the mid-2000s, nearly every major financial institution had adopted Mr. Libman’s technologies.  But instead of collecting royalties, Mr. Libman was collecting a list of reasons from these institutions explaining why they should not have to pay.  Things changed when Mr. Libman hired Dovel & Luner.  Through a series of patent infringement suits on behalf of Mr. Libman’s company LPL Licensing, we persuaded nearly every major financial institution to take a license to Mr. Libman’s patents, including, for example, Citigroup, Prudential, Barclays, U.S. Bancorp, TD Bank, and PNC Financial.  Mr. Libman’s company has now collected over $80 million in royalties.

Jury verdict of $74 million for TiVo.  Represented TiVo in a patent infringement lawsuit against EchoStar Communications (DISH) involving digital video recorders.  At trial, the jury found all of TiVo’s asserted claims to be valid and infringed and awarded TiVo $74 million in damages.  The Court also granted TiVo’s motion for an injunction.  The Federal Circuit affirmed the verdict and the injunction.  The case ultimately settled with EchoStar paying TiVo over $500 million.

Microsoft’s operating system. Represented REC Software USA, Inc. in a patent infringement lawsuit in the Western District of Washington against Microsoft relating to Microsoft’s .NET Framework and Windows operating system.  Obtained a favorable Markman ruling and denials of Microsoft’s summary judgment motions.  The case settled on confidential terms prior to trial.

Personal Facts

  • Rick spent a college semester circling the globe on a boat.
  • Rick, his wife, and two young children live in the same L.A. neighborhood where he grew up.
  • Rick’s great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather formed Lyon & Lyon, one of the nation’s first intellectual property firms.

Joining the firm

I learned of Dovel & Luner in 2003 when my friend and Harvard Law School classmate joined the firm out of law school.  After graduating from law school, I chose a more conventional path and began my career at a traditional large Los Angeles firm.  As our careers developed, my classmate and I would occasionally meet and compare experiences.  Over time, I learned more about Dovel & Luner—its unique dedication to studying principles of persuasion, its ability to take on only the most meritorious cases, and its track record of defeating large teams of BigLaw lawyers.  It eventually became clear to me—I wanted what he had.  I joined Dovel & Luner in 2009.

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