Fish & Richardson Principal Frank Scherkenbach Named "Litigation Trailblazer" by The National Law Journal

Fish & Richardson principal Frank Scherkenbach has been named a "Litigation Trailblazer" by The National Law Journal (NLJ). Scherkenbach was recognized for the "remarkable successes" he has achieved throughout his career as one of the top patent litigators in the country.

Many of Scherkenbach's cases end up in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, where he has dramatically altered the legal landscape with his industry-changing wins for high-profile technology clients. For Microsoft, Scherkenbach obtained what is considered a landmark decision on damages that got rid of the so-called "25 percent rule," which had previously been used by plaintiff-side damages experts for decades as a starting point for royalties in intellectual property cases. A win for Volcano Corp. was heralded as one of the most important administrative law decisions in years for its precedential ruling that held no judicial review was available of a USPTO decision not to institute an inter partes review.

Scherkenbach has been called "one of the 50 greatest litigators in the country" for his ability to craft novel legal theories and for his skill in presenting these ideas to juries and judges. In May 2017, Scherkenbach doubled a $23.7 million jury award to $56.9 million for client SRI International against Cisco Systems. The award included $8 million in attorneys' fees, which is a rare remedy in the District of Delaware.

Scherkenbach received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1989, and his B.S., with distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, in mechanical engineering and his A.B., with distinction, from Stanford University in 1986.