IP Group of the Year: Finnegan

Law360 selected Finnegan as one of its IP Groups of the Year. With “resources to handle patent prosecution, litigation, and everything in between,” Law360 recognized Finnegan for notching litigation wins, navigating the America Invents Act, and negotiating licensing deals. The annual award examines achievements in 22 practice categories from Nov. 1, 2011 through Nov. 1, 2012. In that timeframe, Finnegan attorneys helped HTC Corp. secure a high-profile settlement with Apple, ending a series of smartphone patent litigation disputes. The firm earned a key litigation win for client Akamai Technologies, Inc. with a favorable en banc decision at the Federal Circuit that shifts joint patent infringement precedent and impacts the software industry. Litigation victories also came in the pharmaceutical sector when Finnegan defended clients Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Pronova Biopharma Norge AS against generic challengers.

In the wake of major changes in U.S. patent prosecution practice after the America Invents Act (AIA), Finnegan managing partner Barbara Clarke McCurdy noted, “We’re very much at the leading edge of that, a lot of our folks are lecturing and involved with advising clients on the new procedures available under AIA.” Shortly after the AIA took effect in September 2012, Finnegan filed the first petition for post-grant review of a business method patent on behalf of client SAP AG.

Finnegan was busy in IP licensing as well, helping AOL achieve a $1.056 billion patent deal with Microsoft. “In any sort of transaction, the value of the patents is the issue, and for your general practice firms that do IP litigation, they don't often have a patent prosecution group at all,” McCurdy said. “We do IP from the beginning to end, [so] when it comes to analyzing a portfolio, we can assess not just ‘Oh this might be good patent to litigate,’ but, ‘This would be a good patent to license.’”