Continuous Composites sued for $7 million
KAYE THORNBRUGH | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 10 months AGO
Kaye Thornbrugh is a second-generation Kootenai County resident who has been with the Coeur d’Alene Press for six years. She primarily covers Kootenai County’s government, as well as law enforcement, the legal system and North Idaho College. | December 8, 2024 1:00 AM
COEUR d’ALENE — The Spokane law firm that represented local company Continuous Composites in a patent infringement lawsuit is now suing the 3D manufacturing company for more than $7 million it says it is owed for legal work.
Continuous Composites contends that it owes no more than $3 million.
Intellectual property law firm Lee & Hayes PC filed the lawsuit in November in U.S. District Court.
The suit stems from 2021, when Continuous Composites sued 3D manufacturing company Markforged for patent infringement. Lee & Hayes entered into an agreement with Continuous Composites for representation in the lawsuit, according to the complaint.
Two years later, Continuous Composites and Lee & Hayes revised the agreement to “significantly lower” the potential payment from Continuous Composites in the event of a successful outcome in the ongoing litigation, according to the complaint.
Under the revised agreement, Continuous Composites was obligated to pay the law firm 30% of the dollar amount of any settlement or verdict, the complaint said.
A federal jury in the District of Delaware found in April that Markforged had infringed a patent and awarded $17.3 million in monetary damages to Continuous Composites.
Markforged ultimately settled with Continuous Composites for $25 million — an amount Lee & Hayes contends it didn’t know about until reading about the settlement in a press release published by Markforged in late September, court records said.
Though Continuous Composites confirmed it received the initial $18 million settlement award, the company “also confirmed it will not safeguard or pay” the $7.2 million contingency fee that Lee & Hayes argues it is owed under their agreement.
In a counterclaim filed Thursday, Continuous Composites asserts that Lee & Hayes agreed in an email “to accept the sum of $3 million in full and complete satisfaction of our contingent attorneys’ fees incurred in representing Continuous Composites” in the litigation against Markforged.
“We are disheartened to have received this complaint, as we acted in good faith, relying on clear written representations from Lee & Hayes and their board regarding fees for their work on the litigation with Markforged,” Continuous Composites CEO Steve Starner said in a news release. “The firm has since gone back on their word to demand more money through a lawsuit.”
Continuous Composites has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice.
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