John Chesney has been a partner in the firm's Insurance, Intellectual Property and Commercial Litigation Practice Groups since 1984, concentrating in complex civil litigation at both the trial and appellate levels.
Intellectual Property Litigation. John focuses his intellectual property practice to include copyright infringement, trademark infringement and dilution, unfair competition, licensing and trade secrets disputes. Typical current cases include: trademark infringement litigation involving a major mark for one of the nations largest pharmaceutical companies; copyright infringement litigation involving computer software designed to automate facilities management in the health care industry; and trade secrets litigation involving a novel business system designed to simplify and expedite reimbursement procedures for durable medical equipment sold over the Internet.
Insurance Coverage Litigation. John has acted as lead counsel for national insurers in a number of major environmental coverage disputes throughout the country, handling such cases at the trial and appellate levels in various state courts (including California, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Delaware) as well as in numerous federal courts. In addition to litigating waste site, asbestos-related and other environmental coverage issues, John has litigated a variety of D & O coverage issues.
Securities, Banking and General Business Litigation. John has litigated securities actions, including class actions, under Rule 10b-5, 14 of the '34 Act and 12 of the '33 Act. He has been involved in tender offer and proxy cases, shareholder derivative suits and claims relating to the rights of dissenting and minority shareholders and in the defense of class actions involving the banking industry. John has also had considerable experience with disputes involving RICO, Medicare and Medicaid fraud, commercial fraud generally and international arbitrations.
Antitrust Litigation/Counseling and Related Work. John has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of antitrust cases. In addition to standard antitrust issues, John has litigated and counseled clients of the firm concerning the extraterritorial effect of the U.S. antitrust laws and problems involving the applicability of such laws to controlled economies with nonconvertible currencies. John acts periodically as antitrust monitor at round tables of a national trade association of commercial banks.
In General. John is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar and various federal bars, as well as a variety of ABA committees, and was enrolled as a barrister and solicitor of the Law Society of Alberta, Canada, in 1978.
Publications
11/28/2001, Insurance Alert - Pennsylvania's High Court Issues Two Important Coverage Decisions
John Chesney