
Intellectual Property Litigation
For more than 40 years, our Intellectual Property Litigation practice has delivered exceptional results for plaintiffs and defendants in complex intellectual property disputes. Our experience includes patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, unfair competition and antitrust issues. We are also brought in to resolve significant commercial disputes involving technology.
Our team helps industry leaders, startups, leading academic institutions and multinational biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies solve their most challenging problems. Many of our clients are pushing the frontiers of technology, and we partner with them at the frontiers of the law to help them achieve their most important business goals.
As lead counsel, we have litigated patents from nearly every technology discipline, including software, semiconductors, computer peripherals, visual effects, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical products, telecommunications, industrial machinery, video games and e-commerce. Our victories range from jury verdicts in the billions of dollars to multiple wins recognized as defense verdicts of the year. The breadth of our work is international in scope, and we have substantial experience coordinating global litigation strategies for clients spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Key to our success is the incredible talent and relentless drive of our litigators, who are nationally known as leaders in the field and praised by clients and colleagues:
- "Highly creative—Irell never just uses the same old playbook." – Chambers USA
- "Irell's lawyers are some of the most thorough, diligent and detailed-oriented practitioners you could hope to have on your side. They turn out brilliant results as a matter of course." – Intellectual Asset Management's IAM Patent 1000
- "The lawyers here are some of the most intellectually rigorous around, so while cases are staffed leanly, clients are never left wanting for the finest legal insight." – World Trademark Review's WTR 1000
Our team brings extraordinary qualifications and a high level of creativity to every matter. Many of our litigators have advanced technical degrees and professional experience in private industry, and all of them boast extraordinary academic records. We work collectively to solve the kinds of problems other firms can’t solve, and we draw upon the minds of our entire group—including associates and partners—to come up with the most novel and successful approaches to legal strategy. We are often brought in to take over and turn around “unwinnable” cases after serious losses by other firms.
Our practice includes more than 20 registered patent attorneys who practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), representing clients in all manner of post-issuance proceedings, including inter partes review (IPR), covered business method, post-grant review and ex parte reexamination. The group includes the former undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a former judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and a former chief administrative patent judge of the PTAB who was instrumental in drafting the post-grant provisions of the America Invents Act. Frequently, our group handles patent cases before the PTAB along with co-pending infringement litigation in federal district courts. Our tight-knit team coordinates closely, thinking one step ahead on issues such as claim construction to provide a unified legal strategy for both paths of litigation.
In addition to patent litigation, we regularly represent clients in high-profile copyright and trademark litigation in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies. We represent clients before the USPTO Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and the Court of Appeals to bring and defend oppositions and petitions to cancel. We represent both plaintiffs and defendants in copyright and trademark litigation, seeking and defending temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions and trials on the merits.
Irell Technical Analysis Laboratory
Irell is home to the Technical Analysis Laboratory, a unique facility housed in our Los Angeles office. The lab allows us to quickly and inexpensively conduct product teardowns, scientific analysis, and massive simulations, entirely in-house. In our intellectual property practice, the lab helps our lawyers and scientists investigate infringement and validity on real products and conduct quantitative damages experiments all while saving our clients the considerable time and expense required to shop for experts and wait for outside results. The lab is run by science advisor Thomas Barr and IP litigator Amy Proctor.
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Experience
- VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corporation. Obtained a $2.3 billion final judgment for VLSI Technology in a suit against Intel, which involved two patents on technology used in Intel’s microprocessors. The judgment was handed down in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
- VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corporation. Secured a $948 million jury award plus running royalties for VLSI Technology in a suit against Intel involving a microprocessor technology patent. The jury found that Intel infringed the asserted claims in the patent, and that Intel had not shown the patent was invalid. The award was handed down in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
- Netlist Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Scored a $303.15 million jury verdict for Netlist in a suit against Samsung involving five patents relating to computer memory technology. The jury also found willful infringement, and determined Samsung failed to prove any of the patents are invalid. The case was heard in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
- DePuy Synthes Products, Inc. v. Veterinary Orthopedic Implants, Inc. Secured a $59.5 million verdict for DePuy Synthes, a Johnson & Johnson company, following a six-day patent infringement trial in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The jurors found that Veterinary Orthopedic Implants (VOI) and Fidelio Capital AB willfully infringed two DePuy Synthes patents relating to medical devices for the treatment of canine knee injuries. Subsequently, Irell obtained a permanent injunction barring the defendants from marketing or selling the infringing devices.
- Optis Wireless Technology LLC et al. v. Apple Inc. Secured a $300 million jury award for PanOptis in a suit against Apple involving patents essential to LTE technology used in iPhones and cellular-enabled iPads and watches. The award represented the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) royalty that jurors determined Apple owes PanOptis. In an earlier trial, a jury found that Apple infringed claims of the five patents at issue, determined all asserted claims were valid, and found willful infringement. The jury award is one of the largest involving standard-essential patents.
- Peter v. NantKwest. Persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to unanimously side with NantKwest, Inc. and reject the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s position that applicants who appeal to a district court must pay the agency’s legal bills, regardless of who wins. NantKwest is developing cancer treatments using natural killer cells.
- United Services Automobile Association v. PNC Bank, N.A. Secured a $218.45 million jury verdict for USAA in a patent infringement suit over mobile remote deposit technology against PNC Bank. The jury found that PNC Bank willfully infringed four USAA patents.
- United Services Automobile Association v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. In separate cases on behalf of USAA, persuaded juries to award $102 million and $200 million and individual findings of willful infringement against Wells Fargo relating to patents for mobile remote deposit technology.
- Finjan Inc. v. Juniper Networks, Inc. Successfully defended Juniper against a patent infringement lawsuit, convincing a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that Juniper did not infringe a malware detection patent held by Finjan Inc. Finjan asserted seven computer security patents against Juniper. The judge ordered each party to select the patent claim it felt was the strongest and move for early summary judgment on that claim in a proceeding the judge called a “Patent Showdown.” Juniper prevailed on summary judgment for the claim it selected, and defeated Finjan’s summary judgment motion – setting up the trial on what Finjan had selected as its strongest claim. During the trial, Irell persuaded the court that Finjan, which sought $60 million in damages, had not presented sufficient evidence to support a damages claim. The eight-member jury also delivered a unanimous finding of non-infringement for Juniper. After the trial, the judge ordered a second round of the “Patent Showdown.” Once again, Juniper obtained summary judgment on the claim it selected. Not only did Juniper defeat Finjan’s motion, but it also convinced the court to enter summary judgment in Juniper’s favor on that claim. Shortly after the ruling, Finjan voluntarily dismissed its remaining claims against Juniper. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a summary affirmance on appeal, and the trial judge ordered Finjan to pay Juniper $5.9 million in legal fees. The Federal Circuit also affirmed the fees ruling. Juniper's victory was recognized as a top defense verdict by the Daily Journal.
- TiVo v. EchoStar, et al. Secured $1.7 billion in judgments and settlements including over $600 million paid by EchoStar after the jury verdict and post-trial proceedings; TiVo v. Motorola and TiVo v. Cisco: $490 million; TiVo v. AT&T: $215 million; TiVo v. Verizon: $250 million, plus future royalties.
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Professionals
- Christopher Abernethy
- A. Matthew Ashley
- Richard Birnholz
- Rebecca Carson
- Isabella Chestney
- Morgan Chu
- Dennis Courtney
- Michael Ermer
- Michael Fehner
- Michael Fleming
- Erick Franklund
- Grant Gabriel
- Jie Gao
- Lisa Glasser
- Michael Gniwisch
- Lana Guthrie
- Michael Harbour
- Benjamin Hattenbach
- Connor He-Schaefer
- Alan Heinrich
- Drew Henderson
- Russell Hoover
- Thomas Horn
- Andrei Iancu
- Iian Jablon
- Jonathan Kagan
- David Kahn
- Andrew Krause
- Jonathan Lindsay
- Jeffrey Linxwiler
- Chengming "Ben" Liu
- Samuel Lu
- Jonathon Maddern
- Benjamin Manzin-Monnin
- David McPhie
- Nicole Miller
- Jordan Nafekh
- David Nimmer
- Keith Orso
- Lucas Oxenford
- Kathleen O’Malley
- Stephen Payne
- Amy Proctor
- Babak Redjaian
- Michael Rosen
- Tony Rowles
- Kelsey Schuetz
- Abigail Sellers
- Nicolette Shamsian
- Jason Sheasby
- Blair Silver
- Andrew Strabone
- Skyler Terrebonne
- Michael Tezyan
- Elizabeth Tuan
- Kamran Vakili
- Jane Wald
- Philip Warrick
- Ian Washburn
- Olivia Weber
- Charlotte Wen
- Thomas Werner
- Bruce Wessel
- Josh Woods
- Ben Yorks
- Yanan Zhao
- Hong (Annita) Zhong