Much was made when John Desmarais left his partnership perch at Kirkland & Ellis to start his own law firm-slash-patent licensing company on the strength of more than 4,500 patents he purchased from Micron Technology in late 2009. Desmarais, who was at Kirkland for a decade and litigated some of the highest-profile patent cases in history, rejects the so-called “troll” label and said he would not use his new patent collection for baseless litigation.
“We’re not taking the approach of having ridiculous demands and assuming there will be litigation,” Desmarais told Bloomberg in June, when his eight-attorney law firm firm, Desmarais LLP, officially opened for business. “I think our approach will be a lot more reasonable.”
