John M. Williamson

Partner

John Williamson focuses on intellectual property litigation and counseling, with particular emphasis on patent infringement and trade secret actions before U.S. district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission, and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Williamson's cases span a wide range of technical subject matter areas, including telecommunications, software,
e-commerce, consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. In his litigation practice, Mr. Williamson has briefed and argued numerous claim construction and summary judgment motions, taken witness testimony during jury and bench trials, argued evidentiary motions, conducted depositions, generally managed the discovery and pretrial phases of complex litigations, and drafted numerous briefs in appeals before the Federal Circuit.

In addition to his litigation practice, Mr. Williamson performs licensing, client counseling, and opinion work, primarily in areas related to telecommunications, Internet business models, and digital rights management.

Mr. Williamson is also an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law, where he teaches a course on patent infringement litigation as part of the curriculum for George Mason's highly regarded "Patent Law Track."

Highlights

• Served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Liam O’Grady at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, 2003-2004.
• Verizon v. Bear Creek (E.D. Va.). Represented Verizon against Bear Creek in district court patent infringement litigation involving VoIP technology.
• Netscape v. ValueClick (E.D. Va.). Represented Netscape against ValueClick in district court patent infringement litigation involving HTTP cookies.
• Omniplex v. SAIC (E.D. Va.). Represented SAIC in district court litigation involving trade secrets misappropriation.
• Versata v. SAP (Fed. Cir.). Member of appeal team representing SAP against Versata in Federal Circuit appeal involving software based pricing technology.
• Välinge v. Pergo; Alloc v. Pergo (Fed. Cir., D. Del.). Represented Pergo against Välinge and Alloc in a series of district court litigations and Federal Circuit appeals involving patent portfolios on laminated flooring.
• Telcordia v. Cisco (Fed. Cir., D. Del.). Represented Telcordia in a jury trial and Federal Circuit appeal involving a wide array of telecommunications technologies including ATM, SONET, synchronous residual time stamping, and self healing rings.

Professional Activities

• District of Columbia Bar (vice-chair and chair of Trade Secrets Committee, Intellectual Property Section, 2000-2006)
• Intellectual Property Owners Association
• American Intellectual Property Law Association
• American Bar Association, IP Section
• Pauline Newman IP American Inn of Court

Select Publications

• "Asserting a Claim for Misappropriation of Negative Know-How," IP Litigator, March/April 2009.
• "Considerations When Seeking Future Lost Profits as a Remedy in a Trade Secret Misappropriation Case," IP Litigator, Jan./Feb. 2009.
• "UTSA Preemption and the Importance of Protecting Confidential Information Through Contract," IP Litigator, Nov./Dec. 2008.
• Coauthor. "Defining the Trade Secret: Establishing that Information is "Not Readily Ascertainable by Proper Means"," IP Litigator, Sept./Oct. 2008.
• Coauthor. "The Independent Development Defense: Practical Implications for a Document Preservation Policy," IP Litigator, July/Aug. 2008.
• "Rights Management in Digital Media Content: A Case for FCC Intervention in the Standardization Process," Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law, 2005.
• "Innovation Policy in Telecommunications: Revisiting the Successes of Guglielmo Marconi," Federal Communications Law Journal, March 2005.