Intellectual Property
In 2010, our Intellectual Property Litigation team has won four patent appeal cases in the Federal Circuit, for clients including Broadcom, Becton Dickinson, and Medtronic Navigation, and also won a three-week jury trial for a client involved in a patent infringement case.
WilmerHale’s IP Litigation Practice boasts a leading patent, copyright and trademark litigation team backed by the academic and industry experience of more than 160 lawyers and technology specialists with scientific or technical degrees. Our lawyers have considerable experience trying intellectual property cases in the Federal Circuit, federal district courts from coast to coast, and the US International Trade Commission, as well as courts in the United Kingdom and Germany. Named Intellectual Property Litigation Group of the Year by The American Lawyer in 2008, we have tried jury and non-jury cases involving technologies ranging from complex mathematical algorithms and devices for manufacturing semiconductor chips to recombinant genetics and the construction of golf balls. We also regularly handle patent appeals before the CAFC and appeals of other IP cases before the regional courts of appeals.
Recently, we:
- Represented Broadcom in a major series of disputes with Qualcomm, including seven separate cases in three separate forums, implicating billions of dollars in revenues in the market for advanced computer chips for use in cellular telephones. We prevailed in each of the three cases to reach trial. Read more about these cases here.
- Obtained the first ever jury verdict of patent invalidity in the Eastern District of Texas—a famously patent-friendly district—as well as verdicts of noninfringement, following a two-week trial for our client Outlooksoft Corporation in a case asserting two patents relating to financial software.
- Successfully defended STMicroelectronics in two cases initiated in the US International Trade Commission by SanDisk, resulting in a "major blow" to SanDisk’s IP portfolio, according to industry analysts. SanDisk initiated the first investigation based on a patent, relating to flash memory circuits, for which it had obtained an exclusion order against Samsung (leading to a settlement that is reputed to have involved nearly $1 billion in royalties). We convinced the Commission, following a seven-day trial, that ST had not infringed the patent. We also prevailed in a second investigation, initiated by SanDisk shortly after the termination of the first proceeding, based on the same patent as in the first investigation, as well as an additional patent.
- Represented GlaxoSmithKline in a suit against Teva, under the Hatch-Waxman Act, filed after Teva sought FDA approval to market a generic version of Requip, GSK’s treatment for Parkinson’s disease. After a three-day bench trial, Judge Sleet issued an oral ruling from the bench, a highly unusual move, finding that the case was not a close call, that the asserted patent claims were valid, and that it was "time to put this one out of its misery." Teva subsequently abandoned its inequitable conduct challenge.
- Obtained a jury verdict of noninfringement for our client RSA Security following a two-week trial concerning three patents alleged to cover an algorithm used universally for the cryptographic protection of online transactions. The case was closely followed in the press due to the implications an adverse verdict would have had on all Internet commerce.
To see more examples of our IP Litigation experience, click here.