Patent Litigation

Mayer Brown’s Patent Litigation practice has the breadth and depth of experience to assist clients in all facets of protecting their business processes and patents. Mayer Brown successfully represents both plaintiffs and defendants in patent litigation in a variety of forums. We regularly represent diverse clients from Fortune 500 companies to emerging companies in cases involving patents that cover a wide range of methods and products. We have experience litigating matters in an assortment of industries including: computer software and hardware, financial services, pharmaceutical, information technology, electrical and mechanical engineering, nanotechnology, media, publishing, music, entertainment, biotechnology, and chemistry, among others.

• Avago Technologies Limited, Avago Technologies US, Inc. and Avago Wireless IP (collectively “Avago”) in a litigation relating to bulk acoustic wave filters for use in cellular telephones. Many cellular telephones utilize BAW filters to differentiate between the various signals that a cellular telephone transmits and receives. The case is pending in the District of Arizona and includes 13 separate allegations of patent infringement, allegations of theft of trade secrets and claims against Avago for antitrust violations.
• Avago Technologies in two other matters—one pending in the Northern District of California and another pending in the Eastern District of Texas. Both of these matters concern optical sensor and/or optical finger navigation technology which is often incorporated into the latest cellular telephones.
• International Game Technology in a case where the Federal Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of IGT on patent infringement claims. The competitor Aristocrat's patent disclosed a means-plus-function claim directed to a novel type of slot machine and it claimed that IGT's slot machines infringed that patent. IGT argued on summary judgment that Aristocrat's patent was too indefinite to be valid because its specification failed to disclose sufficient structure. Both the district court and the court of appeals accepted our argument that Aristocrat's disclosure of a "microprocessor-based gaming machine with appropriate programming" was insufficient because it did not set forth an algorithm that would describe the required special purpose computer.
• Abbott GmbH, in a case in which we persuaded the Federal Circuit to dismiss an appeal brought by our opponent from a district court decision upholding the validity of Abbott's patent. On remand to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, the Board agreed with Mayer Brown that priority should be awarded to Abbott. The patent covers a novel protein that has substantial commercial potential because it plays a crucial role in fighting infections. The case is important because it is one of the first decisions addressing the question of whether a patent contains an adequate written description of a novel protein, which is a "biological" product, rather than a new drug.
• Jackson National Life Insurance Company/Mellon Capital Management Corporation for the second time in two years, we successfully defended Jackson National Life Insurance Company and Mellon Bank in a second case involving a "business methods" patent covering strategies for selecting stocks in institutional investment portfolios. We again won a dismissal of the plaintiff's complaint (as well as a covenant not to sue) after presenting the court with prior art that invalidated the plaintiff’s patent. This was a major victory for both Jackson and Mellon because the patented investment strategy allegedly covered Jackson investment funds comprising hundreds of millions of dollars.
• WaveCrest in successfully obtaining the revocation of a long-standing patent owned by Israel organization Aerotel. The patent was for pre-paid telephone calling cards that allow users to make telephone calls from virtually any telephone in the world and charge the costs of the call to the card. The victory was upheld on appeal.
• Valeant International (Barbados SRL) in three patent infringement litigations relating to Valeant’s antidepressant, Aplenzin®. Aplenzin® is a new once-a-day bupropion-based drug that has improved characteristics relative to Wellbutrin® XL. It is the subject of a number of patents, ten of which were at issue among the three cases. Three generic companies have sought FDA approval to market generic versions of Aplenzin®.
• Vodafone (fifteen entities) and three of Vodafone’s partners in a patent infringement case that had 115 foreign mobile telephone carriers as defendants. We developed and briefed the jurisdictional arguments on behalf of our clients on what was recognized by the court to be a novel legal issue. Based upon our jurisdictional arguments, we were chosen by the other 115 foreign defendants to present oral argument on behalf of all foreign carriers to the court on the personal jurisdiction issue. Our cutting-edge motion persuaded the court that personal jurisdiction was lacking, which resulted in the dismissal of the litigation against all 115 foreign defendants and saved our clients millions of dollars in attorney fees and exposure to damages and injunctive relief.
• Mölnlycke Health Care in a claim to revoke a key patent covering Kinetic Concepts, Inc.’s enormously successful V.A.C. system. The system generates more than $1 billion in sales for KCI and several million dollars in royalties for Wake Forest University. The English High Court declared the patent to be invalid both because it was obvious and because the scope of the patent had been extended by an impermissible amendment to its claims. This action, which was part of a multijurisdictional battle, was closely watched by the healthcare industry.