Fish & Richardson Principal Frank Scherkenbach Named 2019 Intellectual Property MVP of the Year by Law360

Fish & Richardson principal Frank Scherkenbach has been named a 2019 Intellectual Property MVP of the Year by Law360. Scherkenbach was singled out for the MVP award - from nearly 900 submissions - for his impressive trial and appellate victories over the past year. He led and won two jury verdicts and three Federal Circuit cases (two were precedential), which is a remarkable pace for even the most sought-after trial lawyer. His wins protected multi-billion dollar markets and upwards of $200 million in damages awards for his clients.

Scherkenbach and his Fish team won three cases for Power Integrations, including two jury verdicts in the District of Delaware (Power Integrations Inc. v. Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. et al.; D. Del. Nov. 9, 2018 and Nov. 16, 2018), obtaining damages awards totaling nearly $25 million. He also won a precedential appeal that made new law regarding the relationships that govern the time bar in inter partes review proceedings. In Power Integrations Inc. v. Semiconductor Components Industries LLC (Fed. Cir. June 13, 2019; en banc petition denied Aug. 28, 2019), the Federal Circuit ruled that ON's merger with Fairchild triggered a time bar, making ON ineligible to challenge Power Integrations' patents at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. In October 2019, Scherkenbach obtained a $175 million cash settlement for Power Integrations, which ended its 15-year patent litigation battle with Fairchild and ON.

Other big wins for Scherkenbach include an important Federal Circuit affirmance for client SRI International Inc. (SRI International Inc. v. Cisco Systems Inc.; Fed. Cir. Mar. 20, 2019; en banc petition denied July 12, 2019) that two of its cybersecurity patents were valid and directly infringed by Cisco Systems Inc., upholding the $23.7 million damages award that Fish won for SRI in 2016. The case was closely watched because it tested whether SRI's inventions were patent-eligible under the Supreme Court's Alice decision.

Scherkenbach and his team also won a precedential decision at the Federal Circuit, Guangdong Alison Hi-Tech Co. v. International Trade Commission (Fed. Cir. Aug. 27, 2019), upholding the validity of client Aspen Aerogels' patent, which Guangdong Alison Hi-Tech Co. Ltd. was found to infringe at the International Trade Commission (ITC) in February 2018. Scherkenbach won the ITC case for Aspen Aerogels against two overseas competitors, with the ITC issuing a limited exclusion order barring the importation of the companies' aerogel composite insulation blankets into the U.S. market.