Fish & Richardson Principals Juanita Brooks and Jon Singer Named Among California's Top IP Lawyers

Fish & Richardson San Diego-based principals Juanita Brooks and Jon Singer were named to the Daily Journal's 2018 list of "Top Intellectual Property Lawyers" in California. Both Brooks and Singer have been named to the list multiple times.

The publication highlighted recent high-profile cases that saw Brooks and Singer deliver extraordinary outcomes for clients in both the technology and pharmaceutical fields, including Microsoft and Gilead Sciences.

Brooks is a leading patent trial lawyer who has earned the title "jury whisperer." She successfully defended longtime client Microsoft in an infringement case regarding two patents covering methods and apparatuses for creating and managing custom websites. Brooks helped the company prevail in post-trial motions as well.

Singer, an acclaimed trial lawyer who heads Fish's life science litigation practice, played a leading role in overturning the largest patent infringement verdict in U.S. history.

In 2016, a jury awarded $2.54 billion in damages against Gilead, finding its hepatitis C drugs Solvadi® and Harvoni® infringed a patent held by rival Merck & Co, Inc. In February 2018, Singer won a motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law (JMOL) that reversed the jury verdict.

In 2016, Brooks and Singer helped Gilead obtain a reversal of a $200 million verdict in favor of Merck in another case involving Gilead's cure for hepatitis C. After a jury awarded Merck damages for patent infringement, Brooks and Singer moved to re-open the record and presented evidence that convinced the judge that Merck and its attorneys were guilty of unclean hands due to the dishonest actions of Merck's legal counsel, leading the judge to wipe out the entire verdict. The court later awarded $14 million in attorneys' fees to Gilead, to be paid by Merck. In April 2018, the Federal Circuit upheld the district court's $200 million reversal.

According to Singer, "what Merck did in prosecuting its patents was a classic situation of a large company improperly taking advantage of the little guy."

"Hopefully, as a result of this case, companies will understand you can't do this and what the ramifications are if you do," said Brooks.

The Daily Journal's list of "Top Intellectual Property Lawyers" was published on April 18.