A new Lex Machina report highlights the firms that worked on the most new patent litigation last year at the district court level for plaintiffs and defendants. Here, Law360 takes a closer look at the top firms in each category.
As part of Lex Machina’s patent litigation report for 2015, which is set to be released Wednesday, it found that McCarter & English LLP handled the most newly filed patent cases for plaintiffs, holding a steep lead with 121 cases.
McCarter & English has spent a lot of energy building a strong intellectual property team and it has become the biggest practice at the firm, with 94 IP attorneys out of its 400 total lawyers, according to partner Lee Carl Bromberg.
“We’re a strong believer in putting together a litigation team with both technically adept people who understand the medical device, pharmaceutical or computer device at issue in the case and those who can stand up in the courtroom and try cases,” he said. “Some firms have a wall dividing these people, but we have a very integrated IP group here.”
While the firm has traditionally played a big role in Abbreviated New Drug Application cases in New Jersey, Delaware and other jurisdictions, it also has drawn clients from the software, industrial equipment and medical device areas and become attuned to patent validity challenges at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
“These procedures are a way to challenge patents at the agency instead of, or in addition to, court,” he said. “We have become adept in our strategy of using those proceedings, and that may contribute to our appeal to clients as well.”
