Overview
Business leaders regularly trust Ropes & Gray to handle their business-critical intellectual property matters. For more than 130 years, our IP litigation practice group has succeeded in protecting and enforcing our clients’ interests in high-stakes litigation and counseling. Our practice group has the experience and knowledge to handle any matter with IP implications, and specializes in matters involving patents, trade secrets, trademarks, trade dress, copyrights, false advertising and unfair competition.
We represent both IP owners and accused infringers in every key intellectual property litigation court in the United States, including the Eastern and Western Districts of Texas; the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of California; the District of Delaware; and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. We also litigate disputes before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), including the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB); the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC); the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC); and tribunals around the world. With IP litigation attorneys in six U.S. offices as well as in Japan and South Korea, we are able to work efficiently with clients worldwide to devise strategic solutions that meet their business objectives.
Ropes & Gray serves clients in all areas of intellectual property law, including:
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Arbitration
- Copyright Infringement
- Freedom to Operate
- International Strategy and Coordination of Proceedings
- ITC Proceedings / Section 337
- Patent Litigation
- Post-Grant Proceedings, Including Proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)
- Trademark & Related IP Litigation
- Trade Secrets
Technical Depth, Industry Breadth
Ropes & Gray’s IP litigation team consists of more than 75 attorneys and technical advisors working across offices and regions to defend and enforce our clients’ interests in patent and IP litigation. Many of our attorneys and technical advisors hold degrees in science and engineering disciplines, such as electrical engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, materials science, physics, chemical engineering, pharmacology, chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, biomedical engineering, molecular and cellular biology, molecular genetics, and immunology.
Our litigation teams pair a thorough understanding of complex technologies with a mastery of the nuances of patent and IP law to represent clients across a wide spectrum of industries, including electronics, semiconductors, software, pharmaceuticals and biologics, medical devices, financial services, internet and e-commerce, telecommunications, and manufacturing. Many of our attorneys worked in these industries prior to joining Ropes & Gray, giving them real-world insight into the issues clients face.
A Leader in the Field
Ropes & Gray’s IP litigation trial team is consistently recognized as a leader by national and global sources, including Chambers USA, Chambers Asia, Chambers Global, Benchmark Litigation, The Legal 500, International Asset Management (IAM) and Managing IP. We were named the 2019 “Law Firm of the Year” for patent law by U.S. News & World Report-Best Lawyers, and recognized nationally by the magazine for copyright law, trademark law and intellectual property litigation.
Groundbreaking Graphics Team
Establishing and protecting the value of complex technologies often requires presentation of sophisticated and subtle technical concepts to judges, juries, government agencies and investors. To simplify this challenge, we complement the work of our attorneys with an award-winning in-house graphics and animation team. Our graphics professionals create state-of-the-art 2D and 3D static and animated visual media to help Ropes & Gray litigation teams clearly convey technical testimony to judges and juries.
Experience
A Winning Team
Companies are increasingly seeking law firms with a proven record of success in state and federal courts. Ropes & Gray IP trial lawyers have achieved outstanding results for clients. Examples include:
- Achieved a series of wins on behalf of Fortune 500 company Emerson Electric in its long-running international dispute against SIPCO concerning Emerson’s Smart Wireless products and mesh network technology. We have won findings of non-infringement and invalidity of SIPCO’s asserted claims before the ITC, PTAB, and the Regional Court of Mannheim, Germany, and the EPO (in conjunction with German counsel), as well as appeals before the Federal Circuit and Supreme Court.
- Following nearly two years of arbitration and a two-week hearing, achieved a win for IQE in a trade secret misappropriation brought by Solar Junction Corporation, when the LCIA Tribunal found for IQE across the board, holding that IQE did not misappropriate any trade secrets or breach the supply agreement.
- Achieved favorable decisions on behalf of TiVo in three ITC investigations against competitor Comcast concerning interactive program guide and digital video recording technology. In the first and second investigations, achieved findings of violation from the Commission and exclusion orders against Comcast. The multiyear dispute culminated in a settlement and 15-year license agreement, agreed to after the ALJ recommended the issuance of an exclusion order in the third investigation, and just prior to the ITC’s final decision.
- Won a dismissal of a patent infringement suit based on lack of patent subject matter eligibility under § 101 on behalf of Samsung Electronics. The matter concerns digital cameras, imaging and optics.
- Achieved a favorable settlement on behalf of an American medical technology company in a trade secret misappropriation, copyright infringement and breach of contract litigation against Cytek Biosciences involving technologies for flow cytometers.
- Obtained a settlement on behalf of a major pharmaceutical company in several false advertising and unfair competition matters against multiple defendants concerning prescription drugs used to treat gastrointestinal disorders such as peptic ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome and acute enterocolitis.
- Achieved a favorable settlement on behalf of Roku and several TCL TV entities that includes a license for all of Roku’s TV partners. The matter involved a multipatent infringement lawsuit filed by Canon concerning TCL-branded Roku TVs, including streaming video and smart TV functionality and interfaces.
- Successfully defended two American universities in a copyright and trademark infringement suit brought by a professor who claimed that the university had used a questionnaire in which he claimed rights, and common law trademarks related to that questionnaire, in several journal articles.
- Secured a preliminary injunction, a rarity in patent litigation cases, on behalf of patent owner and semiconductor tool manufacturer Veeco Instruments.
- Achieved wins at the PTAB and Federal Circuit on behalf of Google in response to an infringement claim targeting Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” feature. In the final written decision issued, the Board found all challenged claims unpatentable. This was affirmed by the Federal Circuit.
- Obtained an ex parte seizure order of trade secret information for a designer shoe company—one of the first such orders obtained under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016.
Awards
- U.S. News World Reports – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” Report 2021 – Nationally recognized and highly ranked in patent law, trademark law, patent litigation and intellectual property litigation.
- Chambers USA 2022 – IP group recognized in California, Massachusetts and New York, with multiple attorneys ranked as leaders.
- Chambers Global 2022 – IP group recognized in Asia-Pacific, China and South Korea, with multiple attorneys ranked as leaders.
- U.S. News-Best Lawyers “Law Firm of the Year Award” 2019 – Ropes & Gray recognized for having the leading patent law practice in the United States, based on client and peer feedback. Multiple IP partners recognized as leaders.
- Chambers Asia-Pacific 2021 – Recognized as an elite firm in Asia-Pacific, South Korea and China for Intellectual Property in South Korea and China/Hong Kong.
- The Legal 500 US 2021 – Nationally recognized in the United States for Intellectual Property in four categories: Patent Litigation, International Trade Commission (Section 337) Litigation, Trade Secrets and Licensing.
- World Trademark Review’s WTR 1000 2020 – Ranked as a top firm for trademark law.
- IAM Patent 1000 2020 – IP partners and individuals recognized in Washington, D.C., California, Massachusetts, New York and China, and internationally, with multiple partners recognized.
- Managing IP Stars 2020 – Recognized nationally in the United States, China and Japan, and in California, New York, Washington, D.C., Virginia and Massachusetts as a top law firm for intellectual property. Multiple IP attorneys recognized as litigation stars.
- Asian Legal Business IP Rankings 2020 – Ranked as Tier 1 among international firms in the patents category in China, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Recognized as Tier 1 for trademarks/copyrights in China, and Tier 2 in Hong Kong and South Korea.
- Daily Journal's Top IP Lawyers 2021 – Two IP litigation partners named as “Top Intellectual Property Lawyers.”
- LMG Life Sciences Guide 2020 – Recognized for Hatch-Waxman Patent Litigation, with two attorneys recognized as Stars.
