Williams & Connolly LLP's trial and appellate experience is effectively brought to bear in the often technically complex realm of patent litigation. Because of their experience as trial lawyers in diverse areas of practice, Williams & Connolly attorneys are able to take the complicated technology regularly found in patent cases and make it clearly understood by both judges and juries.  Many Williams & Connolly attorneys now focus their practices primarily on patent litigation, seven of whom are former Federal Circuit clerks with technical backgrounds from a broad range of disciplines.  

Williams & Connolly LLP has handled many patent infringement actions on behalf of major corporations in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, electronics, telecommunications, and computer industries, as well as on behalf of a great number of smaller, up-and-coming companies spanning a wide array of scientific disciplines.  These cases often involve complex issues of both law and science.  For instance, Williams & Connolly LLP lawyers successfully represented MedImmune before the United States Supreme Court, which held in an 8-1 reversal of the lower court that MedImmune was not required to break or terminate its license agreement with a patentee before suing to challenge the licensor's patent.  

At the trial level, the firm successfully defended the validity and enforceability of two Bayer patents covering highly successful antibacterial products with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales.  In another trial, firm lawyers represented the University of Pittsburgh in a dispute over the inventorship of a foundational patent directed to adult stem cells derived from fat tissue, obtaining a judgment that Pittsburgh’s researchers were the sole inventors and that the remaining inventors listed on the patent should be removed. 

The firm also successfully represented an emerging biotechnology company through trial and in the Federal Circuit in a patent infringement action over an extracellular matrix that promotes the regeneration of new tissue to help heal burn victims and injured soldiers who have lost limbs. 

Williams & Connolly LLP’s history, tradition, and philosophy provide clients with a potent combination: an ability to master the technical and scientific issues raised by patent disputes and a sophisticated understanding of the legal issues raised in patent litigation, combined with outstanding trial abilities.