Find Lawyers in Seattle, Washington for Litigation - Patent
Litigation - Patent - Seattle, Washington
About this Practice Area
Ramsey Al-Salam focuses on intellectual property litigation, with a particular emphasis on patent litigation. He has been lead counsel for large and small clients in cases throughout the country. He works hard to ensure that he understands his clients' goals, and pursues them in an efficient and effective manner. Publications such as Chambers USA (Band One), Best Lawyers in America and Washington Super Lawyers have repeatedly listed him as a leading practitioner in his field. Best Lawyers, fo...
Tim Billick is an intellectual property attorney based in Seattle, Washington. The founder of TBillick Law PLLC, Mr. Billick handles a diverse range of intellectual property disputes involving business litigation, entertainment contracts, information technology, patents and trademarks. A natural problem solver, he serves clients throughout the Seattle metropolitan area and is committed to helping individuals protect their creations. Mr. Billick advises clients on intellectual property subject...
Stephen Bishop focuses his practice on the preparation and prosecution of electrical, software and business method patent applications and the strategic analysis of patent portfolios. He counsels clients on ways to avoid patent infringement, as well as how to respond to allegations that they are infringing a patent. Steve also assists clients in developing corporate intellectual property programs that capture and protect the most valuable assets of the client. While at Amazon.com Inc., Stephe...
Based in Seattle, Susman Godfrey partner, Rachel Black, focuses her practice on high-stakes commercial litigation for plaintiffs and defendants, both at the trial and appellate levels. Ms. Black has tried and managed high profile, high stakes, and widely covered matters in state and federal courts across the country involving a variety of claims, including patent infringement, audit malpractice, financial fraud, unfair business practices, environmental remediation, breach of contract, and ant...
David Burman, a partner in the firm's Commercial Litigation practice, has more than 30 years of experience in litigation, including antitrust, appellate, class action, consumer protection, constitutional, media, patent and intellectual property, privacy, and other cases. He also counsels clients in these and other areas. He has worked on many high-profile cases, including two U.S. Supreme Court arguments, the trial contesting the 2004 Washington State Governor's election, Costco Wholesale Cor...
BACKGROUND Dave Carlson specializes in electrical and electronic patent matters, including licensing and litigation. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Brigham Young University (1979) and a J.D. from the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young (1982). EXPERIENCE Prior to joining Seed IP Law Group, Dave was a patent examiner for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He also previously worked as a patent attorney with Texas Instruments, where he specialized in obtaining U.S. ...
Stuart Dunwoody handles intellectual property litigation and dispute resolution, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret and marketing disputes, and also counsels clients on trademark and copyright protection. Stuart has represented clients in a variety of industries, including recording, publishing, biotech, and financial services.
Susan Fahringer is a partner in the firm's Commercial Litigation group with over 20 years' experience in privacy and security litigation , intellectual property litigation (with a focus on trade secret and copyright litigation ), consumer class action defense and complex commercial litigation. In her privacy and security work, Susan defends companies against individual and class action claims alleging user data and privacy violations, and she defends companies against investigations and suits...
BACKGROUND Bill Ferron has counseled leading Northwest clients on patent, trademark and copyright matters for more than thirty years, with an emphasis on strategic protection, licensing, dispute resolution, litigation, and mediation. He graduated cum laude from the University of Dayton School of Engineering (1978) and received a J.D. from the University of Washington (1981). EXPERIENCE Bill has lectured on patent, trademark and copyright law at the University of Washington (1984-1995), has pu...
BACKGROUND Karl Hermanns specializes in chemical-related patent matters, including overall portfolio management and strategy. He graduated with both a B.S. and an M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Washington. He received his J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law. EXPERIENCE Karl is an adjunct professor at the University of Washington School of Law, co-teaching the patent preparation and prosecution course, and teaches “Intellectual Property for Scientists” thro...
Chun Ng is a partner in the Intellectual Property practice based in both Seattle and Taipei. Chun’s practice involves providing strategic intellectual property counseling, patent diligence and enforcement, and litigation support to some of the most innovative companies in the world. His clients include HTC Corp., Monolithic Power Systems Inc., Intel, Microsoft Corporation, TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., and Lattice Semiconductor Corporation. For these companies and others, he has handled ...
Paul Parker focuses his practice on semiconductor technologies and emerging medical device companies. In the semiconductor industry, Paul has extensive experience in general semiconductor and LED fabrication and process patents (CMP, CVD, ALD, lithography, and electrochemical deposition/polishing, etc.); probing/testing technologies (scatterometry, overlay measurements, photoluminescence, probe cards, test jigs, etc.); semiconductor structures and integration flows; semiconductor device and C...
Warren Rheaume is a civil trial lawyer who focuses his practice on the resolution of patent, copyright, trademark, noncompetition, and trade secret cases. In addition to his civil litigation work, he maintains an active mediation practice serving as the neutral in state and federal cases. Prior to coming to Davis Wright in 2008, Warren was a partner at Heller Ehrman, and before that, at Foster, Pepper & Shefelman. Warren is married with four sons who he flies to various sporting events as...
Jerry Riedinger focuses his practice on patent infringement, trade secret and complex intellectual property litigation. Jerry has over 30 years experience conducing patent litigation, he has represented clients in more than 100 patent litigation matters, and has been lead counsel in more than 60 patent litigations. He has practiced in over 120 technologies.
John Whitaker counsels clients on technology protection and the enforcement of intellectual property rights, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. He routinely represents technology clients in the software, computer, medical device, and telecommunications industries, and he also helps artists and authors to protect their original works. John’s technical experience includes work in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet communications technolo...
Litigation - Patent Definition
A patent is a right granted by the federal government to an inventor to exclude others from making, using, or selling the patented invention. Patent litigation typically involves enforcement of the patent owner’s “right to exclude” against an accused infringer. In some cases, a person who feels threatened by a patent owner will file a lawsuit against the patent owner seeking a declaration that the patent is not infringed or that the patent is invalid.
Infringement and validity are the two primary issues at stake in patent litigation and both issues are determined by the “claims” of the patent – short paragraphs which specifically define the limits of patent coverage. The patent owner bears the burden of proving infringement. A patent is infringed if the accused infringer’s product or activities fulfill all elements of at least one claim of the patent. Patents are assumed to be valid, thus the accused infringer bears the burden of proving that the patent is invalid (or unenforceable). A patent is invalid if the invention described in the claims is shown by “prior art” to be neither new nor “unobvious.” Prior art is the entire body of knowledge in the field of the invention existing as of the date of the invention.
An important stage unique to patent litigation is the “claim construction” phase. Since the claims are all-important in patent litigation, the judge is charged with interpreting the claims, putting the often stilted, formalistic claim language into words more understandable to a lay jury. The claims as construed by the judge thereafter govern infringement and validity. Patent owners often seek a broad claim construction so as to cover the accused infringer’s activities. However, a broad construction of the claims make them more susceptible to being found invalid over prior art ferreted out by the accused infringer. Interpretation of the claims can be determinative of the lawsuit, and cases are often settled at this stage.
If the patent is found to be infringed, the owner of an infringed patent is entitled to compensatory damages (no less than a reasonable royalty) and the infringer is often enjoined from further infringing activities. However, by bringing suit the patent owner risks that the patent will be found to be invalid.
Patent litigation is high-stakes, complex litigation and can be quite expensive. According to the 2009 Economic Survey conducted by the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the total cost of a patent lawsuit can range between a median low of $650,000 to a median high of $5.5 million. Use of expert witnesses is very common. Patent litigators, or litigation teams, combine excellent litigation skills and a keen understanding of patent law.
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.
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