Melissa A. Anyetei

Won:

• An award of attorneys’ fees in a Delaware bankruptcy proceeding involving the breach of a court order dealing with the ownership of certain patent rights.
• A major patent case as trial counsel for a global coalition of the 18 largest automobile manufacturers in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. The case involved a novel touch-based technology that measures blood alcohol levels when a driver’s finger touches the ignition button.

Represented:

• A medical device manufacturer in a patent litigation case in the District of Delaware involving stent technology.
• A diversified global technology company in a dispute involving sensor-based technology. The litigation resulted in the stipulated dismissal of the opposing party’s entire case based on evidence showing the asserted patent to be both invalid and not infringed.
• An international medical device company charged with infringing a patent covering an endoscopic stone-extraction device. The case featured a successful motion to transfer from the Eastern District of Texas, and a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision invalidating all claims of the patent-in-suit.
• A global optical fiber coating manufacturer in ten inter partes reviews before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
• Galderma Laboratories in a Hatch-Waxman patent litigation relating to its topical metronidazole gel sold under the trade name MetroGel® (Galderma Labs. et al. v. Tolmar, Inc., N.D. Tx.).
• A leading educational publisher in a complex IP case involving related claims of utility and design patent infringement, trademark infringement, copyright infringement and trade dress infringement.
• A global food, agricultural and industrial producer in a patent infringement action before the US International Trade Commission involving glucosamine.
• A global manufacturer of gaming machines on appeal to the Federal Circuit that resulted in a favorable affirmance.
• A medical device manufacturer on appeal to the Federal Circuit.
• A life sciences and material sciences company in several inter partes review proceedings before the USPTO involving patents relating to optical fiber coatings.
• A global payments technology company in an infringement action involving cryptographic protection of smart cards.
• A $12 billion global manufacturing company on restructuring of its licensing and global royalty program.
• A leading on-line educational provider on a global licensing program.
• Syngenta Crop Protection AG in connection with the acquisition of the professional products insecticide business of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.
• Chicago United, an organization promoting multiracial leadership in business to advance parity in economic opportunity, in their trademark and enforcement matters.

Other engagements include:

• Providing strategic advice regarding licensing, protection of intellectual property, freedom to operate and patent portfolio management including Orange Book listings, reissues, and reexamination.
• Managing a brand pharmaceutical company’s extensive patent portfolio relating to a transdermal pharmaceutical product.

Columbia University School of Law, JD
Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar

Northwestern University, BS, Industrial Engineering

Bar

• Illinois

Corte

• Illinois Supreme Court
• US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• US Patent and Trademark Office

• Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), Fellow (2017)
• Black Women Lawyers’ Association
• Council of One Hundred (C100), Northwestern University
• American Intellectual Property Law Association
• National Bar Association
• Junior Board Member, YMCA Project SOAR