Quinn Emanuel Erases Contempt Finding Tied to $481 Million Award

Quinn Emanuel convinced the Federal Circuit to undo a contempt order and related $296 million damages enhancement based on a firm partner’s representation of a witness in a high-stakes patent suit.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a contempt order stemming from Quinn’s refusal to disclose its communications with Marc Dacier, a former employee of NortonLifeLock, which had been accused of infringing patents owned by Columbia University. The order was a factor described in a US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruling enhancing the damages Norton owed in the case to $481 million from $185 million.

The appeals court’s Wednesday precedential opinion said Quinn was justified in not divulging the privileged communications to the district court.

In a separate opinion, also marked as precedential, the court vacated the damages award and remanded the case, ruling the district court erred in not finding the asserted patents directed toward an abstract concept and thus potentially invalid.

The court remanded the case back to the Virginia court to determine if the patents, though abstract, contain inventive feature that might save them from being deemed ineligible under Section 101 of the Patent Act.

Columbia is represented by Sullivan & Cromwell. Quinn Emanuel is represented by Clement & Murphy. Latham & Watkins represents Gen Digital, Norton’s parent company.

The cases are:

• Trs. of Columbia Univ. v. Gen Digital Inc., Fed. Cir., 24-1243, vac’d and rem’d 3/11/26;
• Trs. of Columbia Univ. v. Gen Digital Inc., Fed. Cir., 24-1244, rev’d 3/11/26.