Finnegan Henderson, which has some 141 partners in five offices, was honoured in recognition of its work in patent, trade mark and copyright work. The firm was also named patent prosecution firm of the year in the northeast US.
Litigator Desmairis last year represented Alcatel-Lucent in its patent infringement suit against Microsoft, which led to a $1.5 billion jury award last year, and is representing GSK in its challenge to the USPTO’s changes to its rules on claims and continuations, in which a summary judgment in favour of GSK was granted earlier this week.
Kirkland & Ellis was one of the evening’s biggest winners, receiving three awards for patent contentious firm of the year: in the US, the northeast and the west.
In total, more than 40 awards were presented to the leading firms in the US and Canada at a black-tie dinner held in the Four Seasons, Washington DC. Some 160 guests attended the dinner, including representatives of the USPTO, the Federal Circuit and the Banner Scholarship at the John Marshall Law School, which was supported by the event.
Awards were presented to the leading firms in four regions of the US for patent and trade mark prosecution and contentious work and copyright work, to the firms acting in the patent, trade mark and copyright cases of the year in the US and Canada and to the national firms of the year in both countries in a number of categories.
Jon Dudas, USPTO director, presented two outstanding achievement awards.
The first was to Judge Pauline Newman of the Federal Circuit, of whom Dudas said: “She has an unrivalled record of service in shaping patent law in the United States.” He also joked that she is “just the kind of judge” that someone who (hypothetically) might be appealing a case to the Federal Circuit would like to see.
The second outstanding achievement award went to trade mark practitioner and author Jerome Gilson, of the law firm Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione.
Notable winners of the law firm awards included Fross Zelnick, which was named firm of the year for trade mark prosecution and contentious work, and won the same categories in the northeast.
Howrey was recognized as the firm of the year for ITC work and for its strength in diversity.
Kilpatrick Stockton won four of the regional awards for the southern US, and Pattishall McAuliffe won three awards in the Midwest.
Among the Canadian awards, Smart & Biggar won for both trade mark prosecution and trade mark contentious work. Gowlings won the award for patent prosecution and Dimock Stratton that for patent contentious work.
A full list of awards winners is available here.
Full reports, and photos, from the awards dinner will be published in the May 2008 issue of Managing IP, available online on May 1. Managing IP’s global awards, including awards for the firm of the year in more than 30 countries, will be held in London next week.
