A jury awarded $72.6 million to an inventor who claimed his attorneys botched his patent applications. In 2000, Louis Herbert Stumberg, an inventor of a safety device used by firefighters, and his businesses sued several companies for patent infringement. The suit settled for $9 million after the defendants asserted the "on-sale" bar and inequitable conduct defenses. Stumberg alleged that the those defenses wouldn't have been available if his lawyers had properly handled his patent applications and dealings with the Patent and Trademark Office. He claimed he could've won $133 million in the lawsuit if not for his attorneys' negligence. Stumberg and his companies sued the attorneys and firms hired between 1989 and 2003. The jury's verdict was against the firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld only (which represented the plaintiffs from 1995 to 2001); the other defendants settled for undisclosed amounts prior to trial.
