Juanita R. Brooks

Microsoft Corp. is one of the many clients who calls on Brooks for counsel in intellectual property litigation matters. Parallel Networks Licensing LLC filed a lawsuit alleging Microsoft infringed on two patents that cover handling requests for dynamic webpages.

“The technology was very complex and so we needed to find a theme that would resonate with the jury for them to feel like they didn’t have to have Ph.D.s in electrical engineering in order for them to understand the evidence,” Brooks said. “We were able to explain to the jury that the patent was filed in the late ’90s and that invention was frozen in time, whereas the technology that was being accused was made 16 years later.”

“What Microsoft was doing was very different from what was being done 15 years ago because the World Wide Web was different.”

The jury agreed with Brooks and came back with a defense verdict in less than an hour. Parallel Networks Licensing LLC v. Microsoft Corp., 1:13cv2073 (D. Del., filed Dec. 20, 2013).

Brooks also represents GlaxoSmithKline PLC in a patent infringement lawsuit involving Coreg, a drug designed to treat heart failure and high blood pressure. GlaxoSmithKline filed suit against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., alleging Teva’s generic product infringes on its patent that covers Coreg.

“We brought a lawsuit against Teva alleging that they were inducing physicians to prescribe their generic product and as a result of that inducement, that they were infringing our patent,” Brooks said. “We were able to use Teva’s own documents to show that they fully intended to try to encourage physicians to prescribe their generic instead of Coreg to treat heart failure.”

This was a two-step infringement, Brooks said. “First, we had to show that the physicians was directly infringing the claim,” she said. Then we had to show that Teva was inducing or encouraging those physicians to infringe.”

A jury ordered Teva to pay GlaxoSmithKline more than $235 million for infringing a patent covering Coreg, according to court documents. GlaxoSmithKline LLC et al. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., 14-cv-00878 (D. Del. June 20, 2017). The matter is ongoing with a hearing on post trial motions scheduled for late October and a bench trial on equitable defenses afterward.

Despite any challenges she may face, Brooks said she enjoys practicing law.

“Every case I do is brand new and every technology I have to learn is brand new,“ she said. “It’s endlessly challenging, while at the same time endlessly fascinating.”

“I’m always dealing with technology and the complexities of that is what keeps everything fresh and interesting.”

— Melanie Brisbon