Last week, WilmerHale won two appeals at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit–one for client Somaxon Pharmaceuticals and one for client Intel Corporation. Each client had defeated patent infringement claims in the district court and those judgments were affirmed by the Federal Circuit.

On January 17, 2014, the Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of infringement claims brought against Somaxon by Classen Immunotherapies, Inc. The appeal stemmed from Somaxon's April 2013 victory in the Central District of California, in which the district court granted Somaxon's motion to dismiss Classen's infringement complaint with prejudice for failure to state a claim. WilmerHale Partner Lisa Pirozzolo argued the appeal on behalf of Somaxon.

Earlier in the same week, on January 14, the Federal Circuit affirmed a judgment of noninfringement for Intel. The appeal was consolidated at argument with related appeals involving defendants Texas Instruments, Marvell, AMD and NVIDIA.WilmerHale Partner David Marcus argued the appeal on behalf of Intel and all four other defendants. Four days after the argument, the Court issued a summary affirmance of noninfringement for all defendants. This case was filed against Intel in 2011 by Power Management Solutions LLC, which accused several of Intel's processors of infringing its patent involving a power management technique for integrated circuits using “power gates.”

The WilmerHale team representing Intel included Partners David Marcus, Louis Tompros, Mark Fleming, Beth Reilly and Jordan Hirsch; Counsels Kevin Goldman and Arthur Coviello; Senior Associate Julie Harper; and former Senior Associate Tim Yoo.

The WilmerHale team representing Somaxon included Partners Lisa Pirozzolo, Mark Fleming and Tom Saunders; Special Counsel Tracey Allen; and Senior Associate Aaron Thompson.