Hosie Rice LLP

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Our Practice & Cases

At Hosie Rice LLP, we specialize in taking large, tough cases to trial. We represent venture firms, hedge funds, portfolio companies, individuals and state governments in federal and state courts, in California and nationwide. We serve as lead counsel in class action and qui tam cases as well. Hosie Rice LLP handles every aspect of commercial litigation, from discovery to trial through appeal. While we specialize in trying cases for plaintiffs, that experience also gives us an edge in successfully representing defendants.

Our Practice

These are Hosie Rice LLP's areas of specialization:

Intellectual Property

Hosie Rice LLP is an active IP practice, representing emerging technology companies and their inventors. We represent clients in cases including trade secret, patent, trademark, copyright and unfair competition claims. Two of our recent trade secret and patent cases were for companies and inventors in the video streaming and web conferencing fields; another concerns Stereophonic Acoustic Echo Cancellation technology. We are currently co-lead counsel in a nationwide class action concerning Internet copyright issues.

Antitrust

Hosie Rice LLP recently has served as lead counsel in a major monopolization case against the nation's largest software company and a major price-fixing case on behalf of the State of Hawaii. In our careers, our lawyers have participated in some of the most significant antitrust cases in the country, including price-fixing, monopolization, Federal Trade Commission, and restraint of trade matters. Our lawyers have litigated antitrust cases concerning computer software and the Internet, telecommunications, gasoline, health care, breakfast cereals, movie theaters, fisheries, cement and concrete, prescription drugs, professional sports, and the media.

Fraud and Business Torts

Our practice covers fraud, securities fraud, corporate dissolution, director and officer liability, breach of contract, and a wide variety of torts in a corporate context. In 2004, we obtained a jury verdict of $111 million by proving fraud against a Fortune 500 company, which was one of the Top 15 verdicts of the year.

Energy and Natural Resources

Hosie Rice LLP is one of the country's leading energy and natural resources law firms. We have represented the states of Alaska, Hawaii and Louisiana in major litigation for many years. We also represent clients in private suits, qui tam, and national class action energy lawsuits.

Media and New Media Law

We represent traditional and new media clients on issues including intellectual property, access, the First Amendment, and libel. Past and present clients of the firm's partners include major media companies as well as small publishers, dot.coms and advocacy nonprofits.

Class Actions and Qui Tam

Hosie Rice LLP serves as lead counsel in class action litigation, including major national cases. Our lawyers have for many years represented consumers, municipalities, and other plaintiffs in antitrust, intellectual property, breach of contract and other class action matters. We also have served as lead counsel in a major federal False Claims Act qui tam case. We currently serve as co-lead counsel for a national class action on behalf of authors who claim copyright infringement of works resold and published on the Internet and in electronic databases, as well as for a class action on behalf of service station owners who allege nationwide breach of contract by a major oil company.

Our Cases

A selection of Hosie Rice LLP's representative cases includes:

PrivaSys v. VISA International Service Association et al.

Following a favorable result in PrivaSys v. MasterCard, the Hosie firm went on to represent PrivaSys in litigation with VISA.  The matter settled in February, 2008, with VISA taking a license.

Apple Computer, Inc. v. Burst.com

Firm serves as counsel for technology entrepreneur Burst.com in a patent case against Apple Computer, Inc. relating to the iTunes-iPod platform. Please click on link below.
See case materials

Handheld Entertainment, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp.
No. C 06 06383SI
United States District Court, Northern District of California

The case was resolved on favorable terms in November 2006.

PrivaSys, Inc. v. MasterCard International
No. C 05 3663
United States District Court, Northern District of California

PrivaSys is a venture-backed, emerging technology company with patented credit card technology which substantially reduces credit card fraud. PrivaSys brought the action to enjoin MasterCard from incorporating the PrivaSys technology in MasterCard's PayPass product. The case was resolved on favorable terms in August 2006.

Burst.com v. Microsoft Corp.
MDL No. 1332
United States District Court, District of Maryland

Burst, a small high-tech company, developed and patented technology that enabled faster streaming of video over the Internet. Hosie Rice LLP filed suit in federal court, bringing claims for antitrust, patent and trade secret infringement. On the antitrust claims, the suit alleged that Microsoft had monopolized the market for video transmission over computer networks, by conspiring with others to eliminate the Java Media technology upon which Burst's early product was based and, thereafter, by refusing to deal with Burst. On the intellectual property claims, the suit alleged that Microsoft's media player infringed Burst's patent for faster streaming and also infringed trade secrets. We defeated Microsoft's motion to dismiss the case, aggressively pursued discovery of Microsoft's emails, and litigated the case through a Markman hearing on claims construction. On the eve of an evidence spoliation hearing, the culmination of five segmented motions to compel, we settled the case for $60 million in June 2005.
See case materials

State of Louisiana v. Chevron U.S.A.
No. 93648
17th Judicial District Court, Parish of LaFourche, State of Louisiana

The State of Louisiana, one of the largest oil and gas producing states in the nation, hired Hosie Rice LLP to pursue allegations that a major national oil company had underpaid the state on its oil royalty obligations. After defeating numerous pretrial motions, and defeating no fewer than four interlocutory appeals by the defendant, we took the case to a three-week jury trial. We proved not only underpayment but also fraud, obtaining a verdict of $111 million, one of the Top 15 Verdicts of 2004.

Earl Anzai, Attorney General for the State of Hawaii v. Chevron Corp., et al.
Civ. No. 98-00792-SPK
United States District Court, District of Hawaii

The State of Hawaii chose us to represent it in a major antitrust case involving retail gasoline pricing in Hawaii. Our complaint alleged that four major oil companies had fixed and raised the price of gasoline sold in Hawaii for a period of years. After defeating defendants' motion to dismiss and conducting extensive discovery, we settled the case incrementally from 1999-2003 for $35 million. The information developed in the case led to Hawaii becoming the first state in the nation to enact legislation limiting gasoline price increases.

ISPTel, Inc. v. Lucent Technologies, Inc.
C-01-1390 CW
United States District Court, Northern District of California

Our client, an Internet service provider that was preparing to offer Internet telephone service, alleged that equipment sold by the defendant was defective and had effectively prevented our client from entering the business. Hosie Rice LLP litigated the case in both state and federal court, defeated defendant's motion to dismiss, and obtained a favorable settlement.

In re Lease Oil Antitrust Litigation II
MDL No. 1206
United States District Court, Southern District of Texas

Hosie Rice LLP was lead counsel for a subclass in a nationwide class action, representing land owners who alleged that oil companies had conspired to underpay royalty obligations and to hide the true price of resold oil. We used sophisticated economic analysis and review of internal oil company documents to establish underpayment. Notwithstanding that a tentative settlement had been reached with other class representatives, Hosie Rice LLP aggressively negotiated a multimillion dollar increase in the class settlement, to a total of $200 million.

In re Exxon Corp.
No. 94925 (Consolidated)
Department of Revenue, State of Alaska

The issue in this case was the amount of taxes owed to the State of Alaska by Exxon Corp. in connection with oil production in Alaska. Spencer Hosie was lead counsel in a six-month trial, and recovered $259 million for the state. Hosie Rice LLP continues to represent the State of Alaska in energy matters.

In re ANS Royalty Litigation
No. 1JU-77-847
Alaska Superior Court, Juneau

Spencer Hosie was lead counsel in this case, in which the State of Alaska sought to recover underpaid North Slope oil and gas royalties from several major oil companies. After years of litigation, he recovered settlements of $1.2 billion.

Fullview Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation

Hosie Rice LLP currently represents Fullview in a patent case against Microsoft.  The matter involves web conferencing camera technology, and is scheduled for trial in 2009.

Zoltar Satellite Alarm Systems Inc. v. Motorola et al.
 Arbitration

Hosie Rice LLP was recently asked to sign on as lead counsel representing technology company Zoltar in an ongoing intellectual property litigation pending in the Northern District.  This matter is related to patents involving wireless location based services developed by the inventors at Zoltar. 

State of Alaska v. ExxonMobil Corp.
Arbitration

Hosie Rice LLP represents the State of Alaska in this arbitration of the royalty amounts due from a major national oil company on crude oil produced from the North Slope of Alaska. The first trial in this segmented arbitration resulted in a verdict in our favor establishing the value of the oil, in June 2005.

Posner v. The Gale Group, et al.
MDL No. 1379
United States District Court, Southern District of New York

Hosie Rice LLP is one of the lead counsel in this nationwide copyright infringement class action. We represent authors who claim that their works are resold to Internet and electronic database publishers, without compensation to the authors.

In re Louisiana oil royalty and severance tax matters

Hosie Rice LLP has represented the State of Louisiana in a number of suits and appeals against major oil companies, alleging underpayment of oil royalty and severance tax obligations. We have recovered well over $200 million for the state, from trials and settlements. We continue to represent the State of Louisiana in such matters.

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