Patent Litigation

Litigation often is an important component of an intellectual property strategy, and patent litigation constitutes a significant portion of our practice. We routinely appear in courts throughout the U.S. and coordinate international actions to enforce our clients’ patent rights or defend their ability to commercialize products in the face of infringement allegations by others. We have tried scores of cases to verdict, including both jury and bench trials, and have conducted numerous preliminary injunction hearings, Markman hearings, and Federal Circuit appeals. Over 75 lawyers in six of our offices focus their practice in litigated patent matters.

We provide strategic, cost effective litigation solutions to our clients’ business problems by teaming first chair trial attorneys having extensive courtroom and patent experience with patent attorneys having the legal expertise and scientific background typically found only in patent boutiques. Many of our professional staff, including our patent attorneys, are highly skilled technologists/scientists experienced in a wide range of fields ranging from complex molecular and cellular biology, organic and inorganic chemistry, electronics, telecommunications, semiconductors, e-commerce and software to name a few. Bringing courtroom, patent, and technical expertise together in seamless, client-based teams enables us to readily master a client’s business in virtually any technology and develop an IP enforcement or defensive strategy to achieve the client’s business objectives in a practical and efficient manner.

We have litigated patent disputes before virtually all of the Federal Courts in the U.S., the U.S. International Trade Commission, the U.S. Patent Office Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and are often called upon to direct resolution of foreign patent disputes in tribunals throughout the world. We have handled cases in a wide range of technologies and industries, for small and large-sized U.S. and international concerns, and in cases where the amount at risk has ranged from less than $1 million to multi-billion dollar cases having industry-wide ramifications.

Where appropriate we work closely with other specialized attorneys as litigation often is only component of an effective IP strategy. For example, we have more than 120 patent professionals having technical expertise in a diverse array of fields including chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering, as well as bioinformatics, business methods and software. Many of these professionals are skilled in reissue, reexamination, and interference proceedings before the U.S. PTO, as well as proceedings before foreign patent offices, including European oppositions. In the life sciences area, we have an interdisciplinary team skilled in the corporate and regulatory practices unique to this area, which enables us to provide the full range of services needed for the complete product life cycle. Finally, we can rely upon and bring to bear resources of our general litigation practice, which includes more than 275 litigators in 10 offices worldwide. Our litigators have tried scores of cases, argued more than 175 Federal Court appeals in the last five years, and appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court more than 30 times.