Intellectual Property

At Sterlington, we recognize that intellectual property (IP) is not just a legal concept — it is the lifeblood of innovation, R&D, and business success.

Our IP practice offers integrated advice on all aspects of the protection, enforcement, and exploitation of IP, including patents, trade secrets, and trademarks. We represent individuals and corporations, small or large, in their most important IP matters, from providing strategic advice on how to protect their valuable inventions to bet-the-company litigation. Our IP experience spans a variety of industries, including biotechnology, blockchain, chemicals, consumer products, diagnostic kits, financial services, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals.

Our IP trial lawyers have extensive experience representing innovator pharmaceutical companies in patent litigation against generic manufacturers under the Hatch-Waxman Act, as well as advising biologic manufacturers under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act. We also have significant experience in post-grant patent proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as coordinating parallel patent proceedings abroad.

In addition, our IP team supports our deal teams on the IP and technology aspects of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, licenses, spinouts, financings, and other corporate transactions.

Representative matters include:

• achieving a $1.25b settlement for Forward Pharma in a global patent dispute with Biogen
• obtaining an injunction for Merck after a Hatch-Waxman trial on a patent relating to its CANDICAS antifungal drug
• winning a AAA arbitration for Gilead relating to the hepatitis C drug, SOVALDI.