crepuscular

It's finally over. But not really. After 3 long weeks of sleepless nights and a tense 8 days in court fueled primarily by coffee and Amp, the work is done and the jury rendered a verdict. To our surprise the jury ruled in plaintiff's favor -- suprising because we felt we had outgunned them in every way. But where we kind of won the battle was in damages -- instead of the $75 million the plaintiff was seeking, the jury awarded them only $6.5 million. The client was happy about that, considering they had a potential exposure of much more, but in the end as lawyers I think we have to consider this a loss. The real kicker is, there's another related litigation coming up in June, this time at the ITC in DC. Most likely I will be involved.

Cisco owes $6.5M

After the initial repeat visits to the Ale House, our opportunities to go out and enjoy a good meal dwindled to virtually nil as we worked day and night, but at least the catering we had brought in was not too bad at all. On the occasional night of "suboptimal" dining experience, there was always the late-night pizza call. Grotto's pizza was the midnight savior for us in our time of need.
My team and I are fairly bitter about the loss. Perhaps we were cocky enough to assume victory when it was not assured, but we really thought we were going to win this one. It was like repeated slaps to the face as the clerk read the jury's verdict. Infringement. Slap! Willful infringement. Slappity slap! Invalidity defenses denied. Boot to the head! Equitable defenses denied. Kick in the ass!

We went out to dinner with the client afterwards and although the mood was somewhat dejected, the client was still very appreciative. We sampled various tastes and treats at 821, an upscale downtown restaurant with a French-style tasting menu. The spinach and gnocchi salad was fantastic, and so was the lamb plate and the braised rib. My butt was sore after sitting and eating and drinking for over 3 hours however... it felt like I had just gone through a 5 hour flight in a cramped economy seat.

So today we finished packing up the warroom and sending off the truck with all our documents and supplies back to California. The bigwigs flew the coop almost immediately after verdict and left us holding the bags as usual. Tonight, our last night in Wilmington, I decided to take the team still in town out for a real treat, by taking a car to Philly and having dinner at the Saloon, an upscale Italian-American steakhouse. I know this place from going there about 2 years ago when I was last in Philly on business. The food there is fantastic and so was the waitress. She handed us a two-page menu and then rattled off specials of the day for a good 5 minutes. There were probably more items on the specials than the menu. You really have to pay attention as she talks about them, because they are truly the better choices and there's so much to choose from. I don't know why they don't just print out the daily menu instead but it does give an entertaining experience. Repeating my experience of 2 years ago, I ordered a Blue Hawaii only to be told that they didn't have Blue Curacao, and as a substitute was given a pink drink. My coworkers loved it and were promptly stunned when I ordered and devoured an entire porterhouse steak plus dessert, a sumptuous banana custard tart. Good stuff. But I think we all dozed off on the ride back from Philly to the hotel.

Tomorrow morning we rise at 5:30am and head to the airport for the trip home. It's been a long time coming, and all of us can't wait to get back. I haven't seen my honey V for nearly a month, and it's going to be good to be home.