Litigation

Group at a Glance

21 members
Industries we have litigated in include: software, medical devices, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, internet services, consumer products, financial services, sporting goods, photography, industrial hardware, home products, CT scanning, and telephony

What Matters to Our Clients

Experts on the Law and Technology

Intellectual property disputes often have complex scientific and technical questions at their core. Understanding the law, therefore, is only part of a winning formula. To make critical split-second decisions in the courtroom, or successfully impeach a well-prepared expert, litigators must have a fluency in the technology involved.

At Wolf Greenfield, we don't just have the patent law expertise but also the technical and scientific skills and industry experience needed to give our clients a home field advantage in any courtroom. We’ve mastered the art of guiding a judge or jury through technical complexities to understand the core of a dispute. Our litigators are not just advocates, but also teachers: we teach the judge and jury the principles necessary to understand the case, so as to help reach a successful outcome. Our technical depth also allows us to think one step ahead of our opponents in creating aggressive trial strategies and in choosing the optimal time and venue for litigation.

Because our Litigation Group has access to the expertise of every patent attorney and technology specialist in the firm, we are able to master a broad spectrum of subject matters. We have worked on cases involving everything from surgical devices to financial services software to lighting fixtures to snowboards. We have successfully litigated against some of the largest law firms in the country and against some of the largest corporations in the world, and our clients have emerged with market-moving victories.

Staying Focused on Business Goals

Our primary focus in developing any litigation strategy is to understand the client’s needs and long range business goals. Every litigation decision stems from those business goals, and they guide each strategic and tactical move along the way. We partner with clients and take the time to understand their businesses so our legal skill and experience becomes part of their resources.

Not every dispute calls for a lawsuit. In situations where litigation could adversely affect a client’s market position, we counsel the most effective ways to avoid litigation. When litigation is inevitable, we counsel on how to strategically time it, budget for it, and select the most favorable venue.

With a solid understanding of our clients’ businesses and the industries in which they operate, our litigators are able to weigh the consequences before the pursuit begins, and re-evaluate it at each point along the way. Our litigators are also experienced in resolving disputes through negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.

Landmark Decisions

Members of our Litigation Group have successfully argued some of the seminal intellectual property decisions of our times. These include the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Aro Mfg. Co. v. Convertible Top Co., which became a historic case on the doctrine of permissible repair and related issues. We also won a landmark case on the types of evidence courts may consider for patent claim construction, and defeated State Street Bank in the Federal Circuit case that established the patentability of business methods and software-implemented inventions.

We are equally as successful in other venues. Our Litigation Group won the longest patent interference proceeding in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office history over vascular graft technology, and we won the largest jury verdict in a trade secret case in Massachusetts history. In 2007, we also won the largest jury award for a patent case in Massachusetts, in Diomed v. AngioDynamics and Vascular Solutions.

Experience in Various Forums

Our Litigation Group members have experience arguing cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as other circuit courts of appeal across the country, and in the U.S. Supreme Court. Our group handles jury and bench trials in numerous federal district courts and appears before other IP dispute forums including the U.S. Patent Board of Appeals and Interferences, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the International Trade Commission, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, as well as arbitration tribunals such as the National Arbitration Forum, the American Arbitration Association, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Broad Scope of Practice

We represent both plaintiffs and defendants in virtually every kind of IP claim or cause of action including:

Patent infringement
Patent interference
Trademark infringement
Trade secret, nondisclosure, and non-competition disputes
Internet and domain name disputes and arbitration
Copyright disputes
Breach of contract claims, IP licensing, and other transactional disputes
Antitrust and unfair competition claims from the use of IP or technology
Joint ownership issues
University / corporate collaborations
Alternative dispute resolution

Effective Case Staffing

Clients appreciate our ability to staff cases in the manner most suited to the client's business and litigation goals. In many instances, lean staffing provides a focused and cost-effective approach, with one shareholder heading the core team, supported by a single associate and paralegal. As New England's largest IP-only firm, however, we also have the capacity to field a large and sophisticated team from day one, or to ramp up from a core team as needed during busy periods on a particular case.

Our Litigation Group draws on an experienced and sophisticated support structure of paralegals, IT specialists, as well as members of Wolf Greenfield's technical practice groups as needed, to ensure that our resources are tailored to each client's litigation needs.