Mark D. Selwyn

Apple Inc.'s worldwide legal assault on smartphone and tablet computer rivals that it accuses of infringing its patents has produced a massive counterattack by its well-heeled rivals, which have launched their own patent infringement lawsuits in the United States, Asia and Europe.

It is Selwyn's job to stop the infringement complaints of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in particular.

That is a large undertaking, given that Apple's patent litigation with Samsung is now raging in eight different countries, from France to Japan to the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington D.C.

"I have been coordinating the defense of Apple worldwide," he said.

Selwyn also is representing Apple in the ongoing battle with Samsung in a case scheduled to go to trial this summer before U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh of San Jose. Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, 11-1846 (N.D. Cal., filed April 15, 2011).

With many of the same patents asserted in jurisdictions around the globe, Selwyn said he "needs to ensure some consistency of arguments across jurisdictions."

Selwyn is accustomed to being part of a large team effort. In Apple's patent dispute with Nokia Corp., which settled in June, Selwyn and the rest of the legal team had divided up the patents in the case.

He argued the meaning of claims in two of the patents, and after one was dropped, conducted direct and cross-examination of witnesses during a trial before the ITC administrative law judge. Certain Electronic Devices, Including Mobile Phones, Portable Music Players, and Computers, 337-TA-701 (ITC, filed Jan. 25, 2010).

Selwyn also defended Oracle Corp. in a patent infringement complaint in the Eastern District of Texas that ended in a settlement in February 2011.

Aside from his litigation responsibilities, Selwyn also is the partner-in-charge of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP's Palo Alto office and co-chair of the firm's intellectual property litigation practice.

WilmerHale's Palo Alto office has grown steadily in recent years, and now numbers 57 attorneys, half of whom are IP attorneys.

- CRAIG ANDERSON

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