Finnegan Taps Partner from Kirkland to Boost IP Team

Finnegan hired Jin Ooi, a life sciences litigator with experience leading cases in the FRAND space. This addition is part of Finnegan’s plan to build a stronger intercontinental team to handle  the increase in global disputes.

Jin told Law360 that his move to Finnegan was a “great moment in time,” given the firm’s ambitions across Europe.

"We're trying to be transformative in our growth, and part of my joining is to bring patent litigation expertise to the firm in the U.K. to complement the full range of IP services that have already been provided by the current London office, and also the wider U.S. practice,” he said.

Jin’s background includes holding a dual degree in law and pharmacology from the University of Sydney. He obtained a postgraduate diploma in intellectual property law from the University of Oxford and has practiced in the federal courts of Australia.

Jin has worked on “all of the leading cases,” concerning disputes over FRAND. He noted that there is a “sort of race” happening over FRAND determinations at the moment, as different courts in the U.K., U.S. and China exhibit different attitudes toward valuations. He said it will take quite some time and international coordination, even between judges, to understand how best to move forward. They perhaps won't always get to the same answer, but there will be a "few different answers," he added.

Jin is also interested in the standards of plausibility in U.K. patent law, which refers to the test that judges use to determine whether it is actually possible to achieve the claimed technical effect in a patent.

Although he calls it a more niche issue, Jin said it has been "significantly up front in many people's minds," adding that the threshold in the U.K. has been set "far too high."

Finnegan’s head of biotechnology and pharmaceutical practice group, Ryan O’Quinn, said life sciences cases are increasingly global battles, making the addition of Jin in London even  more important.

"He really bolsters our life science litigation capabilities in the U.K. and on the continent," Ryan said. "I'm really excited [about] the possibilities he brings to our current clients, and to the clients we're sure that he will bring in."

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