Daralyn J. Durie

Durie has led her firm’s team to successfully litigate high-stakes cases for Google Inc., Netflix Inc., Genentech Inc. and Twitter Inc.

In late July, she persuaded a federal jury in San Francisco that client Orange S.A., the giant French multinational formerly known as France Telecom, did not hack or steal trade secrets underpinning defunct San Francisco startup Telesocial Inc.’s phone application, which let users call friends through Facebook and other social media sites without their phone numbers by clicking on a link.

“It was a hot trial,” Durie said. “Quinn brought in its A team for the plaintiff,” she added, referring to opposing counsel at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. “Going against the best is the most fun.” The jurors found that Orange owed Telesocial one dollar for breaching its terms of use. Telesocial Inc. v. Orange S.A., 14-CV03985 (N.D. Cal., filed Sept. 2, 2014).

“The gist of our case was that we independently developed the technology, negotiated with Telesocial, and they jacked the price at the last moment,” Durie said. “Our client decided the thing wasn’t commercially viable because there was no real market for it. Telesocial wanted $60 million for stealing their trade secrets. But as I said in my closing argument, they promised us the Coke formula and then showed us the can.”

Durie is lead counsel for Genentech, one of the original and largest biotechnology companies in California, in fending off serial challenges to her client’s Cabilly key patents. They are fundamental for the making of recombinantly engineered antibodies, and they generate hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing revenue for Genentech.

She had defended the Cabilly patents against challenges brought by MedImmune LLC; Centocor Ortho Biotech Inc., now Janssen Biotech Inc.; GlaxoSmithKline PLC; and Human Genome Sciences.

Last year Durie won summary judgment for Irvine-based CoreLogic Inc., the largest technology provider for real estate agents’ multiple listing services. She defended her client against claims by a group of real estate photographers who claimed CoreLogic’s software removes copyright management information from their photographs, erasing their names.

The suit alleged that most of the millions of real estate listing photographs posted since 2011 were eligible for statutory damages. The case was significant in part because it was the first class action of its kind filed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia A. Bashant of San Diego threw out the case, holding that the plaintiffs failed to prove the defendant intentionally removed or altered information embedded in the digital images. Stevens v. CoreLogic Inc., 14-CV1158 (S.D. Cal., filed May 7, 2015).

“It’s important when possible to get these things kicked at the pleading stage,” Durie said.

— John Roemer