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October 5, 2006
For more information contact:
Allysn Hurley
Director of Marketing and Business Development
Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC
ahurley@eckertseamans.com
MuniAuction, a Pittsburgh firm, Awarded $38.4 Million By a Federal Jury in Major Patent Infringement Case
A federal jury in the United States District Court for the Western
District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh
today awarded $38.4 million to MuniAuction Inc. of
Pittsburgh. This was a
landmark patent infringement decision for the court, which found New York-based
Thomson Financial and a related company, i-Deal, guilty of willful infringement
of a patent covering an electronic municipal bond auction
method.
The case centered on software patented by MuniAuction, which is used for the
online auction of municipal bonds. MuniAuction conducted the first-ever
online auction of municipal bonds in Pittsburgh
in 1997. Thomson Financial introduced its product
in 1998 and was found to have willfully infringed on MuniAuction’s
patent.
Attorney Raymond Niro, lead trial counsel for MuniAuction, was assisted in
the trial by John Janka, Sally Wiggins and Douglas Hall, all with the firm Niro,
Scavone, Haller & Niro in Chicago, and local counsel John E.
Hall of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott in
Pittsburgh.
“MuniAuction very much appreciates the jury approving their patent,” said
Hall. “This keeps high tech business here in
Pittsburgh and helps put an end to
the exploitation of locally developed technologies by New
York firms and those from other larger
markets.”
Hall added that Federal Judge Gary Lancaster handled the case, which involved
many complex issues, professionally and
fairly.
Niro said he was very impressed with the manner in which the trial was
conducted and the high tech courtroom of Judge Lancaster. Niro, a
Pittsburgh native and graduate of
the University of
Pittsburgh, said he was “pleased with
the verdict and thankful for the opportunity to try a lawsuit in his home
town.” Niro, from Chicago, has won major verdicts throughout the United
States.
About MuniAuction
MuniAuction is a Pittsburgh
company that conducts auctions for municipal bonds using
the Internet. The MuniAuction patent covers an award winning technology
and was invented by Myles Harrington and Dan Veres of
Pittsburgh. A third inventor,
Robert Panoff, lives in
Virginia. The City of
Pittsburgh received a prestigious
award for being the first municipality to auction municipal bonds
electronically.
About Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott
Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC (www.eckertseamans.com), a national law firm with nine offices throughout the eastern United States, provides a full range of legal services nationwide to businesses of all sizes, institutions, municipalities, colleges and universities, government agencies and individuals. Its practice areas encompass litigation, including mass tort and products liability litigation, corporate and business law, intellectual property law, labor and employment relations, aviation & aerospace law, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, employee benefits, environmental law, construction law, municipal finance, and tax and estate law. Eckert Seamans has offices in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Southpointe, Pennsylvania; Wilmington, Delaware; Morgantown, West Virginia; Boston, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C. and White Plains, New York.
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