Timing has been everything for Paul Hastings Palo Alto partner Yar Chaikovsky and internet-security client Trend Micro Inc.

In November 2014, Chaikovsky was trying to short-circuit an upcoming trial in which patent assertion giant Intellectual Ventures LLC sought more than $150 million. Chaikovsky argued that under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice case, Intellectual Ventures’ claim on a method of filtering email was ineligible for patent protection.