Our first runners-up this week at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher created a buzz in the patent litigation bar with their mid-trial defense win for clients Dell Technologies and VMware. Three days into trial, U.S. District Judge Alan Albright in Waco, Texas last week granted a motion for a directed verdict of no infringement in a case brought by prolific patent plaintiff WSOU Investments, which does business as Brazos Licensing and Development. The win marked the first time the nation’s busiest patent court has directed a verdict of non-infringement. The Gibson Dunn team included Brian Rosenthal, Josh Krevitt, Veronica Moyé, Benjamin Hershkowitz, Ernie Hsin, Jaysen Chung, Casey McCracken, Nathan Scharn and Emily Whitcher. Barry Shelton of Winston & Strawn was local counsel.
Lawyers at Covington & Burling, HunterMaclean, Williams & Connolly and Fox Rothschild also land a runner-up spot for getting a defense verdict for drug distributors in Georgia state court this week. In the first case brought by individual victims of the opioid epidemic to go to trial, plaintiffs sought more than $200 million. The trial, which started in late January, saw powerful testimony about the effects of opioid addiction on families. But it took jurors in Glynn County Superior Court about a day and a half of deliberations this week to reach a verdict that Cardinal Health Inc, McKesson Corp. and JM Smith Corp. were not liable under the state’s Drug Dealer Liability Act, which allows family members of drug abusers to sue drug dealers. A team led by Andrew Stanner and Emily Ullman of Covington & Burling and Randy Jordan of HunterMaclean represented McKesson with support from Covington’s Chris Eppich, Chris Pistilli, Amber Charles and a large team of associates. J. Andrew Keyes, Lane Heard, Steven Pyser, Danielle Sochaczevski, Loryn Helfmann and Kees Thompson of Williams & Connolly represented Cardinal Health. Nicholas Salter, John Haggerty and Stephan Cornell of Fox Rothschild represent J.M. Smith.
