Media, Electronics, Telecommunications & Consumer Products | Life Sciences: Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Medical Devices & Pharmaceuticals | Financial Services

Shearman & Sterling’s Intellectual Property & Technology Litigation practice offers a full range of legal services relating to the enforcement and commercial exploitation of intellectual property and technology assets, working in conjunction with our highly regarded 100-plus litigation and global arbitration groups. Our services include litigation and dispute resolution, global coordination of IP disputes, inter partes proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and strategic litigation counseling. We make use of our extensive international footprint to serve as global coordinating counsel in multi-jurisdictional cases and have extensive experience working with the most qualified firms in local jurisdictions.

Broad Industry Representation. Our Intellectual Property & Technology Litigation practice lawyers have represented scores of companies in high-profile disputes across a wide range of industries including electronics, financial services, telecommunications, computer hardware and software, medical devices, mechanical devices, chemicals, pharmaceutical and media and entertainment.

Financial Services IP Experience. We have represented many of the world’s largest financial institutions in matters involving intellectual property, including the top three banking groups in the world ranked by assets. We assist these large financial institutions and other clients in responding to threats posed by the most well-known of the patent owners that have targeted the financial services industry. We also have experience in IT infrastructure used by financial services enterprises including trading systems, exchanges and call centers. We have helped companies develop patent positions to protect trading systems and asset management systems.

Media, Electronics, Telecommunications & Consumer Products. Our lawyers advise multinational technology, electronics, telecommunications, Internet and media companies on the critical IP legal issues they face in the midst of sweeping technological change driven by converging technology, networks, devices and multimedia content and services. Our litigation experience encompasses technologies including software, wireless devices, satellite and terrestrial communications networks, VoIP networks, interactive television, flat panel display controller circuitry, microprocessors, computer hardware, interactive voice response systems, mobile fabrication systems, telecommunications equipment, casino gaming systems, consumer product manufacturing equipment, the Internet, computer games and toys, among others.

Life Sciences: Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Medical Devices & Pharmaceuticals. Shearman & Sterling's IP litigators represent companies in high-stakes cases covering a wide range of life sciences technologies. Our deep bench of IP litigation attorneys with strong biological and chemical sciences backgrounds provides a substantial foundation for litigating biochemistry, medical device, and pharmaceutical patent cases. Combined with our experience in information technologies, we are able to handle cutting-edge bioinformatics and other convergence technologies. Shearman & Sterling's trial lawyers are well-versed in the intricacies of patent and trade secret law and policy and can explain the underlying technology to judges and juries. We have mastered the art of guiding a judge or jury through technical complexities to understand the core of a dispute. Our primary focus in developing any litigation strategy is to understand the client’s needs and long-range business goals. To that end, our lawyers often employ creative licensing strategies and other measures to meet the business needs of these clients.

Technical Expertise. Many of our Intellectual Property & Technology Litigation practice lawyers are registered patent lawyers or lawyers who practice primarily in the patent and technology area, with many holding degrees and advanced degrees in biology, chemistry, electrical engineering and computer science.

Patent and other IP Trial Experience.The group’s intellectual property lawyers routinely litigate patent and other IP cases at both the trial and appellate levels in federal and state courts, at the International Trade Commission (ITC), the USPTO and the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. We have a “trial ready” approach to litigation. Our partners have been lead trial counsel in patent and trade secret infringement cases in state and federal district courts across the country, including such popular courts as the Eastern District of Texas, the Eastern District of Virginia, the Northern District of California, the Central District of California, the Southern District of California, and the District of Delaware. We are equally strong in the arbitration area, handling numerous contested proceedings every year.