Weil Gotshal & Manges

Weil Gotshal & Manges is highly recommended in California for its patent contentious practice. The firm also has a notable group on the West Coast focused on IP transactions.

In the patent area, Edward Reines is one of the key practitioners at the firm and is well known for his expertise in Federal Circuit matters. He currently serves as firmwide co-head of the patent litigation practice.

The firm’s IP transactions expertise is bolstered by Silicon Valley partner Karen Ballack, who specializes in licensing agreements, collaborations, IP acquisitions and divestitures, among other services. Recent representations include GlobalFoundries in a sale to Marvell.

In 2021, the firm was shortlisted by Managing IP for the US Copyright Firm of the Year, US Life Sciences IP Litigation Firm of the Year, and US Transactions Firm of the Year awards.

Weil represents Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and SAGE Publications in a high-profile copyright infringement dispute with Georgia State University involving the contours of the fair use doctrine in the academic setting.

In addition, Weil counsels Spotify on direct and secondary copyright infringement liability, music licensing issues, product development, and DMCA safe harbor protections.

The firm is involved in multiple high-stakes patent cases, including matters for Guardant Health related to DNA sequencing technology. The disputes between the client and competitors Foundation Medicine and Personal Genome Diagnostics are being closely watched due to the novelty of the emerging technology area.

In 2020, Weil secured a Federal Circuit victory for longtime biotech client Bio-Rad Laboratories and the University of Chicago, sustaining a $24 million patent jury verdict and upholding a permanent injunction against virtually all of an adversary’s infringing products. The firm also secured a win in the PTAB for Bio-Rad Laboratories, defeating an IPR challenge mounted by Agilent Technologies.

Additional patent clients include Illumina, HP and Oracle.