Congrats to Higgs Fletcher & Mack’s Phillip Samouris and Charles Reidelbach for their recent patent case victory for client American Fireglass™, the world’s premier manufacturer of fireplace/fire pit glass and related burner products.

The company successfully completed its Inter Partes Reexamination of Moderustic’s core U.S. Patent No. 7,976,360 before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Federal Circuit affirmed the USPTO’s decision, disallowing all of the claims of the Core Patent as being unpatentable and obvious in light of prior art.

“The Federal Circuit’s ruling is a total victory for American Fireglass,” said Samouris. “The Federal Circuit affirmed the USPTO’s ruling, disallowing all of the claims of the Core Patent, showing once and for all that Moderustic’s Core Patent is invalid and unenforceable.”

“We are extremely pleased at the outcome of this lawsuit,” said Matt Doll, CEO of American Fireglass. “About a dozen companies manufacture Fireglass and winning this lawsuit helps every one of them. Being a pioneer in this industry we felt it was our responsibility to save the jobs and lively hood for so many people.”

Samouris has represented clients in business and commercial litigation in San Diego for more 20 years. He has effectively represented companies in patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret lawsuits, partnership and contractual disputes, interference with business relations, investor lawsuits, fraud, professional malpractice and employment issues.

As a partner and chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Group, Reidelbach represents clients with intellectual property protection and enforcement issues in various industries, including medical devices/diagnostics, cloud computing, emerging technologies, food and beverage, sports and entertainment and publishing.