COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS REGARDING STRATEGIC ALLIANCES WITH OTHER LAW FIRMS


Question No. 1. What does Gauntlett & Associates do?

Answer: Gauntlett & Associates focuses on procuring insurance coverage for its clients in intellectual property and antitrust lawsuits. We are not an insurance agency or insurance company. Our focus is representing the interests of defendant corporations. We represent companies sued in intellectual property and antitrust lawsuits that seek coverage from their own commercial general liability/umbrella/excess insurance companies. Through a combination of negotiation and, where necessary, litigation, we seek recovery of attorneys' fees and costs incurred in defending the corporation against copyright, trademark, patent, infringement, antitrust, and other business tort claims.

Question No. 2. What kind of a strategic alliance is Gauntlett & Associates seeking?

Answer: Gauntlett & Associates is seeking to align itself with several large national and/or international law firms for the purpose of reciprocal referral business. We are not looking for any type of interlocking equity ownership position or anything that is extremely formalized. A written agreement is not even necessary. We are seeking to have ongoing, mutual reciprocal referrals so that each law firm will benefit.

Question No. 3. How will a strategic alliance with Gauntlett & Associates benefit my law firm?

Answer: This will benefit your law firm in several ways. First of all, if you are like other large law firms, you probably currently represent a number of large insurance companies. Gauntlett & Associates represents only policyholders with respect to its intellectual property insurance litigation activities. Therefore, if a firm such as yours tries to represent a policyholder, there may be a conflict of interest which raises a host of ethical issues. As opposed to merely referring intellectual property insurance matters to any law firm, you can refer to a law firm, Gauntlett & Associates, that, hopefully, has been able to demonstrate to you exceptional expertise in the area of intellectual property insurance. This will benefit your law firm if you are representing the company in the underlying IP litigation because it could make it easier for the client to pay legal fees if they are reimbursed by an insurance company. In addition, it is a value-added service that you provide a client that they may not have previously known about. IP insurance is a relatively new area of the law. Finally, we will remember who sent us business and when we have the opportunity, we will be able to send you business in the future, although there is no guarantee of this.

Question No. 4. If we become involved in a strategic alliance with Gauntlett & Associates, what kind of business will you refer to us?

Answer: We receive several inquiries a month about representation in various areas that we are not equipped to do an excellent job in and therefore we have to refer this business out. For instance, we do not do patent prosecution, i.e., the filing of patents, and we get several inquiries a month in this area alone. In addition, we do not do sophisticated IP litigation such as biotech or computer-related patent infringement actions. We sometimes receive inquiries about general corporate work, transactional work, real estate work, and general civil litigation inquiries which all could be referred out to those law firms we have established strategic alliances with. Finally, in that our practice is a national one, we often have need for local counsel, and, again, our strategic alliance partners would be at the top of the list for local counsel consideration.

Question No. 5. If we become a strategic alliance partner with Gauntlett & Associates, how many case referrals can we expect to receive from you in the next year?

Answer: There is no way of telling how many cases you would receive nor are we able to forecast how many cases you will be referring to us. The major advantage of the strategic alliance is to shorten the list of law firms that we will refer business to, and have a relationship with each of those strategic partners. Since we know what the strengths of our strategic partners are, we can better match referral business to the particular law firms best suited. Over a period of time, the strategic alliance could develop into something more formalized, if necessary.

Question No. 6. What are some of the companies Gauntlett & Associates has done intellectual property insurance law work for in the past?

Answer: Gauntlett & Associates has successfully represented a number of Fortune 500 companies and middle-market companies in their IP insurance litigation: Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, Playboy, The Limited, Lockheed-Martin, Avery Dennison, Oneida, Unocal.

Question No. 7. How big is Gauntlett & Associates?

Answer: We currently have approximately 8 full-time attorneys and 15 full-time support staff. We occupy a 20,000 foot suite in Irvine, California which is 50 miles south of Los Angeles. Although we don't have hundreds of attorneys, as many larger national law firms have, we believe that we have more intellectual property insurance attorneys under one roof than any law firm in the country.

Question No. 8. What is the full range of services Gauntlett & Associates offers?

Answer: Gauntlett & Associates offers a variety of intellectual property insurance-related services including, but not limited to: IP insurance coverage litigation; IP litigation (for some cases); Expert witness on IP insurance coverage issues, including fee disputes; Counsel to IP case at chief counsel for insurance coverage, for choice of forum and negotiation; Consultant to corporations regarding what type of policies to purchase to protect against IP litigation (both defensive and offensive coverage); Representations in IP insurance arbitrations and mediation; Legal malpractice defense - as expert and percipient witnesses, relating to IP insurance; and IP Insurance issues appellate practice.

Question No. 9. A strategic alliance with Gauntlett & Associates sounds like a good idea. What is the next step for us to further explore a strategic alliance relationship?

Answer: Probably the next step is to schedule a conference call between the most appropriate partner or partners in your law firm and David Gauntlett. David can explain in more depth the advantages to all involved. In addition, we have excellent written materials we can send you about Gauntlett & Associates. You can also check our website at www.gauntlettlaw.com. You may want to consider whether our services would be appropriate for any of your past or present clients with respect to obtaining reimbursement for their intellectual property litigation costs. In addition, you may want to check our website for upcoming speaking engagements of David Gauntlett throughout the country at various industry and professional organizations and plan on attending one of his presentations. You can email us at marketing@gautlettlaw.com and request to have your name added to our quarterly newsletter, which is emailed free of charge. Also, you can send us more information about your intellectual property practice. This could be a firm profile, citations to cases, bios, etc. so that we can become more familiar with your practice. We are now in the process of setting up a filing system where we will keep all this information and use it as the need develops with regard to referral business.