The American Lawyer - Intellectual Property, Fall 2010

MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN IP

DAVID NIMMER

Author,

Nimmer on Copyright

As a child, David Nim- mer watched as his father, Melville, become influential in IP circles with the 1963 publication of his treatise, Nimmer on Copyright. It wasn’t until the 1980s, though, that he put his own mark on the book. By then, David Nimmer was a federal prosecutor, and his father was ailing. The two teamed up to produce a new version of the book, and when his father died in 1985, David Nimmer finished the project. He has continued to publish updated versions regularly ever since. Passages from the book have been quoted in some 3,000 federal and state court rulings, informing the way judges have decided cases involving the first-sale doctrine, injunction requests in infringement cases, and the U.S. Copyright Act’s termination provisions. (On the latter topic, judges have lately leaned on Nimmer’s analysis when deciding such cases as Siegel v. Warner Bros.) He also takes on matters in his of counsel role at Irell & Manella, but Nimmer says, “My perfect day is when I start writing up cases for the treatise and the phone never rings.”

RANDALL RADER

Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Being the chief judge for the Federal Circuit doesn’t bestow the power one might think. Unlike the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Federal Circuit’s top judge doesn’t even decide which of his colleagues writes the court’s opinions. To lead on this court, a judge needs to practice the art of persuasion. Early indications are that Randall Rader, who took over the post in June, has talent in this area—and that

he’s not going to be hands-off. Rader has signaled that he’s set to revamp the court’s relationship with the Eastern District of Texas, the federal district with the most active docket. Rader visited East Texas in April to sit in on trials, and wound up overseeing an unprecedented five. Rader’s 20 years at the Federal Circuit may also portend a better relationship with the Supreme Court, which has in recent years taken a dimmer view of patent rights than the appellate court has. Consider that when the 5-to- 4 Court majority that decided Bilski said the patent application at issue in the case deserved to be rejected because it covered an abstract idea, it aligned itself with the view previously taken by just one Federal Circuit judge: Randall Rader.

PAUL RYAN

CEO, Acacia Research Corp.

A former investment banker who has repositioned himself as a champion of the individual inventor, Paul Ryan has led the country’s largest publicly held patent-holding company since 1997. These days, Ryan says, Acacia is shifting its emphasis from helping individual inventors get cash by enforcing their patents to working with corporations that want to more aggressively capitalize on their IP. Meanwhile, despite losing three trials that could have boosted its reputation as a patent enforcer, Acacia has buoyed its finances by striking hundreds of license agreements. And by doing the things a “normal" publicly traded company does—filing financial disclosures, speaking publicly to investors—Acacia has done more to legitimize the patent enforcement business than any other player. Whether one loves, hates, fears, or simply respects him, Ryan is building Acacia into a company that will continue to change the patent litigation landscape.

FRED VON LOHMANN

Senior Copyright Counsel, Google

For almost a decade, Fred von Lohmann was the public face of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, championing the fair use rights of Internet users over, usually, the objections of large copyright holders. With von Lohmann’s crucial strategic input, the EFF submitted influential amicus briefs in such important cases as Vernor v. Autodesk and Perfect 10 v. Google. Among the more notable recent cases in which the EFF got involved was the fight over whether the U.S. Copyright Office should allow a Digital Millennium Copyright exemption for the “jailbreaking” of Apple’s iPhone. In July—less than a month after von Lohmann took an in-house post at Google—the exemption was granted. In his new job, von Lohmann will get the chance to shape copyright law even further—working from the inside out.

SHLOMO YANAI

President and CEO, Teva Pharmaceuticals

Shlomo Yanai has led the world’s biggest generic drugmaker, which accounts for 22 percent of all generic prescriptions in the United States and produces 8 billion pills a year, since 2006. And Jeru-salem-based Teva has never shied away from using litigation to feed its success. Now, despite the recession—or maybe because of it—Teva’s revenues are set to grow by 27 percent this year, to $14 billion, keeping the company on pace to meet Yanai’s two-year-old prediction that revenue would climb to $20 billion by 2012. The ex–Israeli Defense Forces strategist is willing to spend to achieve that goal. In March, Teva expanded its global reach, buying German generic maker Ratiopharm for $5 billion.