Intellectual Property Litigation - Patent & Other Scientific

Well-honed capabilities in science and technology and peerless courtroom skills: complex patent and scientific litigation demands the best of both worlds. Our lawyers possess advanced scientific and technical training complemented by strong commercial litigation and trial skills — the essential ingredients for successful patent litigation outcomes.

Jump to:  Why Paul, Weiss? | Our Practice | Clients | Industries | Recognitions | Representative Engagements

Why Paul, Weiss?

We offer our clients the skills of a boutique patent litigation firm, with lawyers who hold advanced degrees in a multitude of technical and scientific areas, in the context of one of the finest litigation departments in the world. Our patent team is well known for its courtroom skills and strategic insight. Accordingly, we have represented clients in enterprise-threatening patent and scientific litigation countless times in court, and our lawyers have successfully tried many cases to a verdict or judgment.
Patent and scientific litigation matters require analytical mastery and strong explanatory skills. We are adept in the delicate task of presenting sophisticated technical and scientific material in plain language to facilitate truly informed judgment by judge, jury or arbiter.

Our patent and scientific litigation lawyers are backed by the resources of our renowned Litigation Department. Aided by an extensive litigation infrastructure, we are able to perform the thorough and focused institutional archeology necessary to achieve an effective discovery process.

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Our Practice

Our lawyers, some of whom are registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, possess degrees in many disciplines, including:

Biophysical studies Cellular and molecular biology Chemistry Computer science

Electrical engineering Mechanical engineering Physics and applied physics

The diverse technologies involved in matters we have handled have included:

• Consumer products such as shaving products, cosmetics, erasable ink pens, hair dryers, toothbrushes, antiperspirants and golf shoe cleats;
• Industrial technologies such as chemical products and processes, mechanical sensors, automotive drive systems, fabrics, corrugated paper, machinery, paper stock washers, color correction equipment, electrical generators, spindle motors and rare-earth magnets;
• Electronics and computing products, including LEDs, LDs, alkaline and hearing aid batteries, Internet method/information storage systems, computer network management software, telecommunications software, CDs and DVDs, audiotape cassette technology, word processing, barcode and machine vision technology, semiconductors, flat-panel display technology and fiber optics; and
• Medical device and pharmaceutical products such as transcatheter heart valves, surgical staples, catheters, hip and knee prostheses, laser cornea shaping, cryosurgical devices, vaccines, medical diagnostic tests, biomedical development and antibiotics.

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Clients

Our lawyers have acted as lead counsel in numerous patent cases. Clients have included:

ADP BASF Edwards Lifesciences Estée Lauder Genentech Gillette

Nichia Nidec Siemens Time Warner Toshiba Zagat Survey

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Industries

We have litigated a wide variety of jury cases, bench trials, Federal Circuit appeals and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office interferences and other proceedings across a wide range of technical areas, including:

Aerospace Biotechnology Cable television Chemicals Consumer products Communications Computer technology and software Computer hardware

Electronics Industrial and utility power systems Medical devices Metallurgy Pharmaceuticals Scientific instruments Telecommunications Textiles

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Recognitions

Complex patent and scientific litigation matters have garnered particular praise and recognition for Paul Weiss’s intellectual property patent group. Honors have included:

• The American Lawyer
  • “Big Suits” – General Electric Company v. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries et. al. (2012)
  • “Big Suits” – Edwards Lifesciences et al. v. CoreValve et al. (2010)
  • “Big Suits” – Gillette v. Energizer Holdings (Schick) (2005)
• Chambers USA
  • Leading firm – “Intellectual Property - Patent” (2011)
  • Recocognized Practitioner – “Intellectual Property - Patent” (2011)
• Legal 500
  • Leading firm – “Intellectual Property” (2011)
• U.S. News & World Report/Best Lawyers
  • Leading firm – "Litigation - Patent.” (2010)

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Representative Engagements

In addition to their legal prowess, Paul, Weiss intellectual property lawyers are well-versed in the advanced scientific and technical aspects surrounding patent law. Recent client matters have included representing:

BASF in its patent infringement actions against Cheminova, Makhteshim Agan of North America and Control Solutions; in the voluntary dismissal, with prejudice, of a patent infringement suit filed by Chevron Phillips Chemical Company regarding patents generally related to the field of block copolymers; and in obtaining a preliminary injunction on behalf of BASF Catalysts that prohibited its former chief technology officer from joining the Specialty Materials division of Honeywell International until the expiration of the two-year noncompete period in the former employee’s employment agreement.

Biogen in litigation against several of its major competitors on the fundamental patent covering the use of Biogen’s top-selling product, the multiple sclerosis treatment Avonex®. This product was among the first therapeutic applications of recombinant DNA technology and was critical to Biogen’s emergence as one of the world’s leading biotech companies.

Edwards Lifesciences, the industry leader in artificial heart valves, in its patent war with Medtronic over replacement valves that can be inserted with a catheter, thus eliminating the need for open heart surgery. We won a major victory when a federal court jury in Wilmington, Delaware, awarded Edwards $74 million after it found that Medtronic’s CoreValve ReValving system infringed Edwards’ patent covering these revolutionary valves. The jury also found the infringement was willful, and awarded Edwards 100 percent of the profits Edwards lost as a result of Medtronic's actions. We are currently defending that verdict on appeal in the Federal Circuit, as well as representing Edwards in three other major patent infringement cases pending between the company and Medtronic.

Garmin, the world’s leading maker of GPS devices, in achieving a significant victory in a patent suit brought by Triangle Software in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, known as the “rocket docket.” Triangle alleged that Garmin’s portable navigation devices, including the popular Nuvi and Zumo product lines, infringed five patents on traffic information technology. The plaintiff alleged that the total amount of infringing sales was more than $2 billion. The Paul, Weiss team obtained a favorable jury verdict of non-infringement on three of the five patents, with the jury hung on the remaining two patents. The court later adopted the jury’s decision and held that there was also no infringement of Triangle’s remaining two patents.

Genentech in significant patent litigation against GlaxoSmithKline and Humane Genome Sciences concerning the Cabilly II patent, a significant biotechnology innovation related to methods and expression vectors used to produce antibodies.

Gillette in a major victory in its high-profile “razor wars” patent infringement litigation against Schick, in which Gillette asserted that Schick’s four blade razor used Gillette’s patented “progressive geometry” invention. The Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Gillette, holding that the “principles of progressive blade exposure” set forth in Gillette’s patent could “apply equally to four or five blades.”

Hitachi Metals, successor to NEOMAX and Sumitomo Special Metals, as complainant in an International Trade Commission (ITC) Section 337 investigation concerning neodymium-iron-boron magnets, and in subsequent proceedings in which we successfully persuaded the ITC not to re-open its ruling in Hitachi Metals’ favor, or to interfere with the existing general exclusion order.

Life Technologies, the largest provider of research tools to the biotech industry, in patent litigation over so-called next generation DNA sequencing technology.

Nichia, Panasonic and LaCie in an ITC proceeding involving a claim of patent infringement brought by Seoul Semiconductor (SSC).

Nidec in patent litigation alleging infringement by LG Innotek of Nidec patents on spindle motors for media disk drives.

Visible World and Cablevision in a patent infringement action brought by Invidi Technologies in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Invidi alleges that Visible World, a leading provider of targeted television advertising solutions, and Cablevision alone and jointly infringe a U.S. patent owned by Invidi.

42 automotive manufacturers and their suppliers in a trial court proceeding defending patent infringement claims related to side-impact air bag sensors in which we won summary judgment in 2005, later affirmed by the Federal Circuit.