Pruetz has argued and won appeals in a wide range of intellectual property and business cases before the Seventh Circuit, Ninth Circuit, Federal Circuit and other federal courts of appeal, as well as the California appellate court. Achieving a successful outcome on appeal begins in the trial court, with lawyers who know how to try cases and preserve issues for appeal. Winning on appeal requires the effective presentation of compelling arguments, focused on issues on which the appeal will turn and tailored to the appellate forum.  Our track record over two decades speaks for itself.

• A summary judgment of patent non-infringement that Pruetz won on behalf of Nike was affirmed by the Federal Circuit, after extensive oral argument on the impact of certain drafting conventions in design patent cases.
  
  
• Pruetz maintained its summary judgment victory on appeal to the Federal Circuit in a case for Fujitsu, in which the district court had invalidated the plaintiff’s two semiconductor patents for obviousness.
  
  
• Pruetz took over a case post-trial to handle an appeal for Abbott Laboratories, from a jury verdict of willful infringement and an injunction prohibiting the sale of Abbott’s genotyping products. Pruetz convinced the trial court to set aside the willfulness verdict and on appeal, Pruetz convinced the Federal Circuit to uphold the finding of no willfulness, to set aside the injunction and to reverse and remand the case on an invalidity issue.
  
  
• Currently, Pruetz is representing the Roche companies on an appeal to the Federal Circuit arising out of the summary judgment Pruetz won for Roche, invalidating three HIV monitoring patents for obviousness.
  
  
• In the Ninth Circuit, Pruetz prevailed in numerous appeals of copyright and trademark cases for Mattel, involving Mattel’s famous BARBIE, HOT WHEELS and TARZAN trademarks and copyrights.  Some of these cases have helped to shape important legal principles: Walter v. Mattel (reverse confusion in a trademark case); Hicks v. Mattel  (Rule 11 in a copyright case); Mattel v. American First Run Studios (no copyright on actor); Mattel v. RealToy (violation of injunction gives rise to a new lawsuit, not only contempt)
  
  
• Although it is notoriously difficult to overturn a preliminary injunction on appeal, Pruetz accomplished that for Kaiser Permanente in Knauer v. Kaiser.  Pruetz took over the case after a preliminary injunction had been entered against Kaiser, enjoining it from using thousands of photographs in its advertising library on the ground that the photographs were copyrighted by the photographer Kaiser had hired. Pruetz persuaded the Ninth Circuit to reverse the injunction for abuse of discretion by the trial court.
  
  
• Pruetz successfully obtained an affirmance for Chrysler Corporation on an opponent’s appeal to the Seventh Circuit from Chrysler’s antitrust victory at trial.
  
  
• Pruetz also obtained reversal of a summary judgment against Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, in an appeal to the Ninth Circuit involving a construction dispute.
  
  
• Pruetz has handled a variety of appeals in the California Courts of Appeal, including writ proceedings, and has prevailed on all of them.
  
  
• Pruetz convinced the California Court of Appeal to affirm its summary judgment in a right of publicity case over Mattel’s TARZAN action figures.
  
  
• Pruetz also won denial of a writ petition seeking to overturn the superior court’s denial of an anti-SLAPP motion in a malicious prosecution case.

Intellectual Property Litigation
Trademark and Trade Dress Litigation
Patent Litigation
Copyright litigation
Trade Secret Litigation

Business Disputes
Real Estate and Construction Litigation
Insolvency Litigation
Unfair Business Practices Litigation
Commercial Arbitration

Appellate Practice

“NAMWOLF is pleased to have Pruetz Law Group join our membership…another great firm with such a depth of trial experience.”

Yolanda Coly, Managing Director of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms