Cybersex Client’s Fee Claim Doesn’t Prevail in Keker Withdrawal Motion
Miles Monroe, the character in the Woody Allen movie Sleeper, knows something about sex machines and the travails of a very modern life. Now, it seems, he has something in common with the law firm of Keker & Van Nest.
The law firm has won permission to withdraw from litigation over a patent that allows computer users to feel tactile sensations when visiting adult websites, the Recorder reports. Keker had claimed a conflict mandated its withdrawal, but its client said the dispute was all about reduced legal fees.
Keker represented Internet Services, a company that claimed it had rights to develop software that allows Internet users to feel the action on a computer screen. The company claimed it would be due any money collected by a different company in its patent infringement suit against Sony Corp.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland, Calif., ruled Internet Services had no standing in the Sony Case but said the company may have a breach of contract claim against the plaintiff, which won $82 million in the case. When Keker sought to withdraw from ongoing litigation over an alleged conflict of interest with a porn lawyer, Internet Services claimed the real reason for the motion was because the law firm no longer had the potential to collect a contingency fee.
Wilken cited the conflict in allowing the law firm off the case. Keker had claimed a conflict with porn lawyer Gregory Piccionelli, who helped Internet Services “hook up” with a potential buyer, the story says. Piccionelli threatened to sue the firm in a dispute over whether it represented him in a deposition.
