Heidi L. Keefe

Ask Keefe about her relationship with technology and she doesn't mince words.

"I'm a complete dork," she said. "I've always loved outer space and astrophysics. I wanted to be an astronaut."

Gifted with a skill and passion for explaining the complex world of science to those who don't get it, Keefe recognized a frustrating truth about language while filling out arcane grant forms in college for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"It dawned on me that scientists and lawyers didn't speak the same language," she said. "They weren't talking to each other. They were talking past each other. As a result, the wrong people were getting the money because the scientists couldn't explain it in a way the lobbyist could understand. So lobbyists couldn't understand which science project was the most beneficial to the future."

Raised by a teacher and a scientist, Keefe thought she might be able to help the science community by attending law school to become a lobbyist for the space community. It didn't take her long to recognize that plan wasn't going to work out.

"I got to law school, and I realized I suck at politics," she said. "But I fell in love with the idea of explaining science and technology in a way that everyone could understand."

Since 2007, Keefe has worked with Facebook, handling over 100 patent cases. One major case she described as a success involved defending the social media giant in $6 billion trade secret lawsuit over subsidiary Oculus VR LLC's virtual reality technology. The jury came back with $500 million verdict in February.

"That sounds like a lot," she said. "But it was a lot less than they asked for, so that made us happy." Zenimax Media Inc. et al. v. Oculus VR LLC et al., 3:14cv1849 (N.D. Texas, Feb. 1, 2017).

Keefe described the trial as a "real dogfight" and "an old-fashioned shoot out," insisting the Oculus technology was never a trade secret. Oculus made use of entirely different mathematics, building the technology from scratch.

"Therefore their trade secrets claims, the core of their technology claims, had no merit," she said. "That was the part of the case we handled, and we are extremely proud of the fact that there was no finding that any of the technology had been stolen."

— Shane Nelson