Maria E. Doukas
Maria Doukas concentrates her practice on patent litigation matters as well as post grant proceedings before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Maria uses her former work experience at the USPTO as a patent examiner in the medical device arts and her M.S. degree in biomedical engineering to assist clients in a variety of technologies, including in pharmaceutical, biological, and mechanical arts. Her practice includes representing clients in Hatch-Waxman Act litigation matters in US district courts and representing clients in Section 337 investigations before the US International Trade Commission. Maria also has experience in trade secret misappropriation matters, as well as matters involving licensing disputes.
Maria has experience in many phases of patent litigation, including pleadings, fact and expert discovery, claim construction, trial preparation, trial, and pretrial and posttrial motions.
Maria has also been involved in inter partes review proceedings before the USPTO involving pharmaceutical patents. She has experience drafting inter partes review petitions and preparing for oral arguments before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Maria has also coauthored numerous client alerts and publications related to biosimilars, including serving as an author on the firm’s quarterly Blockbuster Biologics Review. Before joining Morgan Lewis, Maria was an associate at another international law firm.
While in law school, Maria gained experience in patent infringement analysis at Ford Motor Co. She also served as a judicial extern to Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Before law school, Maria worked as a research assistant in the Sakiyama-Elbert Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis, where she conducted research related to spinal cord regeneration. Additionally, she worked in the Ameer Research Group at Northwestern University as a research associate conducting research related to ligament tissue engineering.
- Serving as counsel for a leading provider of hemophilia products in a patent infringement litigation involving Factor IX/IXa activating antibodies.
- Serving as counsel in trade secret misappropriation matter involving antibody technology.
- Served as counsel for Merck KGaA and related entities in an arbitration against NantKwest and Brink Biologics involving NK-92 cell lines where team successfully moved to dismiss related district court action seeking to enjoin the arbitration.
- Served as counsel for Defendant Nestlé Purina PetCare Company in jury trial. The jury returned a defense verdict where Plaintiff sought $73 million in damages for infringement of a patent directed to sodium bentonite formulations.
- Served as counsel for Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. in a two-week jury trial regarding lithium-ion battery technology in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The jury returned a verdict entirely in Milwaukee Tool’s favor.
- Served as counsel for Praxair, Inc. in ANDA litigation in the District of Delaware where the court ruled in Praxair’s favor.
- Served as counsel for Baxalta in an ITC dispute involving the method of manufacturing recombinant factor VIII (ADVATE), a billion-dollar pharmaceutical product. The case settled favorably after the ITC ruled in Baxalta’s favor on domestic industry on appeal.
- Worked on multiple inter partes reviews involving the pharmaceutical arts.
- Prosecuted numerous patent applications at the USPTO involving medical devices, batteries, chemical formulations, and display devices.
- In pro bono matters, serving as counsel for a client seeking asylum, as well as serving as counsel related to settlement assistance in prisoners’ rights cases.
- Northwestern University School of Law, 2013, J.D.
- Washington University in St. Louis, 2006, B.S., Biomedical Engineering
- Washington University in St. Louis, 2006, M.S., Biomedical Engineering
- Illinois
- US Patent and Trademark Office

Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Ones to Watch, Litigation – Patent, Chicago (2022–2025)
Member, Practice Group of the Year, Intellectual Property, Law360 (2019, 2025)
Member, Litigation Department of the Year–Intellectual Property, The American Lawyer (2019)
Recognized, IP Rising Star – United States, Illinois, Managing Intellectual Property (2018–2024)
Member, National Immigrant Justice Center’s Pro Bono Asylum Attorney Program
Notes and Comments Editor, The Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property
