Litigation - Trial

At trial, the right team makes all the difference

When your company is faced with an IP dispute, the stakes are high. When the possibility of a trial exists, the risks are even greater. Critical decisions about the technology, brand, and rights to market or license will be made by a judge or jury. The amount of information to be analyzed, reviewed, and presented, coupled with the complexities of the technology or science involved, requires intense focus, a meticulous attention to detail, and the ability to communicate your position persuasively.

Even though few patent litigations make it to trial, Finnegan's attorneys litigate as if we were going to trial from day one. That doesn't mean indiscriminate discovery and inflated billings. It means putting together the best team and taking a careful and considered look at your case, your goals, the court, the precedents, and the opposition. It means positioning you for the best outcome at every stage. With more than 300 litigators who have technical degrees in virtually every field and experience in bench and jury trials, we are fully prepared and qualified to litigate through trial and appeal.

• Involved in 450+ district court patent litigations in the past five years
• Involved in nearly 20 percent of all ITC cases filed in the past five years
• Filed and defended more than 600 U.S. trademark oppositions and cancellations in the past five years
• Filed and defended more than 100 U.S. trademark civil litigations in the past five years
• Involved in 220+ UDRP arbitrations in the past five years

Strong cases built on complete comprehension

Finnegan's singular focus on intellectual property gives us a distinct advantage before and during trial. Unlike other types of litigation, patent cases are often resolved before a trial ever begins. The subject matter is complex and the legal issues are often unique to IP law. Claim construction, prior art searches, evaluations of a patent's strengths and weakness, reexamination alternatives, building a damages strategy, identification of experts—these are just a few of the issues that can predetermine the outcome of a patent litigation.

When trial is the best or only option, Finnegan has the right mix of technical expertise and trial experience. For more than 40 years, we have successfully litigated hundreds of cases involving the most technologically advanced and complex patents, as well as global trademark issues. More than 90 of our lawyers, student associates, and technical specialists hold Ph.D.'s in fields ranging from neurobiology to electrical engineering. Nearly 400 of our professionals also hold scientific degrees in addition to their law degrees. Before and during trial, our knowledge and intellectual firepower are applied to make the most complex issues easily understood and to undercut the opposing side's arguments. We build and present cases that are accurate, understandable, and persuasive.

Insight into every court

We know the courts because we have successfully argued cases in almost all of them, including nearly all of the U.S. district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. We practice regularly before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, and the U.S. Copyright Office. We have also worked at these courts and agencies. Many of our lawyers have backgrounds as clerks or PTO patent examiners, or both.