IP Litigation

Our IP litigators devote their practices to IP litigation, and combine the many complex facets of IP to marshal every resource necessary on behalf of clients. We are steeped in the practice of intellectual property law, including the Federal Circuit’s constantly changing jurisprudence, International Trade Commission (ITC) procedures, preliminary and permanent injunction practice, and bench and jury trials. We handle every scale of litigation, from large, complex multijurisdiction matters and bet-your-company confrontations between industry leaders, to litigation involving non-practicing entities, to modest license dispute and piracy matters.

Above all else, we view the world through our clients’ eyes. Our litigation strategies and tactics advance our clients’ business goals, not our own.

Capabilities

Patent Litigation

We practice at the intersection of law and technology, combining extensive technological knowledge with experienced trial advocacy in patent law. We have nearly 100 US PTO-registered lawyers, agents, and technology specialists, and the majority of our patent litigators have technical backgrounds or experience. We cover virtually every technology with professionals in the electrical, software, mechanical, chemical, and pharmaceutical disciplines, among others. We regularly litigate in the leading United States patent venues, including the Federal Circuit, the International Trade Commission, the Eastern District of Texas, the Western District of Texas, the District of Delaware, the Eastern District of Virginia, the Western District of Wisconsin, the Northern District of Illinois, and the Central and the Northern Districts of California. We litigate IP matters in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Australia, and Asia. Moreover, we feature a sophisticated inter partes and ex partes practice in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

We have broad-based experience in all phases of patent infringement litigation, including developing overall strategy for both patent holders and accused infringers, pursuing and defending preliminary injunctions, conducting discovery across the world, coordinating multicountry judicial and administrative proceedings, and arguing before the Federal Circuit. We excel in presenting complex technical matters to juries, using the latest jury persuasion techniques, and employing state-of-the-art technology.

ITC Litigation – Section 337 Investigations

Patent litigation increasingly involves Section 337 Investigations at the ITC. We have represented many high profile, sophisticated technology companies before the ITC. We understand the strategic interplay between ITC proceedings and district court litigation, the rules, procedures, and inter-workings of ITC proceedings, and the strategies and tactics employed by opposing parties and the ITC staff counsel. We have been involved in fifteen ITC investigations over the last three years, including three  Hearings in 2021 that resulted in two wins for our clients and one settlement.

Trademark, Trade Dress Litigation, and Anti-Counterfeiting

We manage the worldwide trademark portfolios for a number of our large clients, overseeing the protection and enforcement of our clients’ trademark rights internationally. Our efforts regularly involve seizures and preliminary injunctions and trials across the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia.

Many of these cases involve preliminary injunctions. We have extensive experience with motions for preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders in the context of a variety of trademark, service mark, certification marks, and trade dress matters. We have brought numerous ex parte seizure actions as part of a well-developed anti-counterfeiting program for one of our entertainment clients.

We routinely prosecute and defend claims involving both registered and unregistered trademarks and service marks, as well as a wide variety of trade dress and advertising claims. We do so in all of the typical forums for resolving these types of disputes, including the federal courts, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, state courts, and a variety of alternative dispute resolution settings. With the help of a comprehensive list of counsel with whom we have had prior relationships, we also have pursued and defended trademark and service mark claims in numerous jurisdictions around the world.

Our lawyers have developed significant experience in the area of anti-counterfeiting. Our experience is most prominent in representing sports and entertainment clients, as well as clients involved in clothing, motion pictures, chemicals, and food and beverages. As a result, we have developed an extensive, cutting-edge federal court practice under the Trademark Counterfeiting Act of 1984 and other portions of the Lanham Act, the Copyright Act, and other pertinent federal and state laws in the United States as well as under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA), the Trade Marks Act, and related legislation in the United Kingdom.

Copyright Litigation

Our lawyers handle infringement litigation involving computer programs, literary works, sound recordings, musical compositions, works of art and design, architectural works, luxury goods, and many other protectable works. We also are experienced in litigating the often complex issues surrounding disputes involving authorship, ownership, works for hire, copyrightability, originality, and fair use.

In connection with litigating copyright issues that have arisen in the context of the internet, we are well versed in the details of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the United States and the CDPA and related legislation in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. Although the provisions of these laws are detailed, we know the ins and outs of the law and use it to help our clients. For example, our lawyers frequently use the take-down provisions of the DMCA, the CDPA, the U.K. Electronic Commerce Regulations, and the Australian Copyright Act to circumvent infringers altogether and force internet service providers to remove or block access to infringing material. We have extensive experience in cross-border litigation, including parallel importing (gray market) claims.

Trade Secret and Non-Compete Litigation

Our trade secret litigation team has deep experience in cases involving trade secret and misappropriation claims, including those under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and under trade secret law developed separately in each state. Our team of accomplished intellectual property and commercial trial lawyers have tried more than 25 trade secret cases to verdict and understand the importance of an early litigation strategy. Our Labor, Employment, and Workplace Safety lawyers are also heavily engaged in our trade secret practice. With a focus exclusively on representing management-side clients in matters arising from the employment relationship, our lawyers understand what employers need to protect against trade secret claims of misappropriation and offer client employers advice on trade secret protection. We also regularly advise clients on their existing trade secret compliance programs, issues that may arise in respect of such trade secret compliance programs, as well as design and draft the same in accordance with leading market practices.