Lina F. Somait

Lina Somait is an associate in the Los Angeles office of Irell & Manella LLP, where she is a member of the firm's litigation and IP litigation practice groups.  Ms. Somait specializes in patent litigation and licensing disputes in state and federal court.  She has represented clients in the telecommunications, semiconductor, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. 

Ms. Somait's current and recent matters include:

• Ms. Somait represents a cutting-edge software company in a patent infringement suit related to location positioning technology for mobile applications and devices. Ms. Somait also represents the same client in a high-profile business torts suit.
• University of Utah v. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften, e.V.
  Member of the Irell & Manella team currently representing defendants in this action in the District of Massachusetts seeking correction of inventorship on two patents in the field of RNA interference and alleging various torts stemming from the inventorhsip claims.
• Microprocessor Enhancement Corp. v. Texas Instruments Incorporated
  A patent infringement case in the Central District of California relating to microprocessor architecture and conditional instruction execution. Irell & Manella obtained summary judgment of noninfringement on behalf of Texas Instruments and the judgment was affirmed on appeal.  After the case concluded, the patentee again sued Texas Instruments, alleging infringement of different products based on the incorporation of various ARM processors.  And again, Irell & Manella obtained summary judgment of noninfringement on behalf of Texas Instruments.
• MedImmune, LLC v. PDL BioPharma, Inc.  
  This action, filed in the Northern District of California, involved claims by MedImmune seeking to invalidate PDL BioPharma's Queen patents, which cover certain fundamental technology relating to humanization of antibodies.  MedImmune also alleged that PDL breached a "most favored licensee" provision in the parties' license agreement for the Queen patents.  After 18 months of contentious litigation, Irell & Manella successfully negotiated an agreement resolving all domestic and foreign patent disputes between the parties.  Ms. Somait developed a novel set of contract theories that allowed PDL to present additional affirmative claims against MedImmune.
• Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Whitehead Institute
  Member of the Irell & Manella team that represented plaintiffs Max Planck (one of the leading international research institutes) and Alnylam (a publicly traded start-up company based in Cambridge, Mass., dedicated to developing drug treatments based on RNA interference, commonly known as gene silencing) in a dispute over patent applications in the field of RNA interference.  The case settled shortly before trial on favorable terms.

Ms. Somait is a member of the firm’s New Associate Training Committee and the Outside Speakers Committee.  She earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2008 where she was Senior Editor of the ILJ Digest of the Harvard International Law Journal and was actively involved in the Berkman Center Clinical Program in Cyberlaw, the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project, and the HLS American Civil Liberties Union Research Group.  While in law school, Ms. Somait also worked as a Student Prosecutor at the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and participated in a Summer Honors Program at the California Attorney General's Office.  She earned her B.A. in Creative Studies with an emphasis in Biology, with Highest Honors, from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2005.  As an undergrad, Ms. Somait received the Excellence in General Chemistry Award and worked as a Research Assistant in the Schimel Lab where she conducted laboratory experiments on microbial activity and leaching losses.

Ms. Somait is conversant in German and Arabic.

Bar & Court Admissions

• 2009, California