Krista S. Schwartz

Before she went to law school and became a patent litigator, Schwartz worked for AT&T Bell Labs, where she was an inventor on more than 20 patents relating to desktop video conferencing.

She’s still keeping lines of communication open, as when she resolved a thorny problem for electronic design automation client Synopsys Emulation and Verification SA. The company retained Schwartz to replace its prior counsel after that team sustained a $36 million adverse verdict and injunction in both the trial and appellate courts for patent infringement. The plaintiff was rival Mentor Graphics Corp.

Schwartz had never before come into a case post-verdict. The U.S. Court for the Federal Circuit affirmed the big judgment and remanded for additional proceedings. The case was heading for another trial in the District of Oregon but Schwartz and colleagues found a different path.

“Sometimes parties do manage to come together,” she said. “There was a whole business proposal component that we could see was better than a monetary resolution. That cut through some of the issues.”

Prior to the retrial, the parties resolved the matter through a patent cross-license and business cooperation agreement. Mentor Graphics Corp. v. Synopsys Emulation and Verification SA, 3:10-cv-00954 (D. Ore., filed Aug. 12, 2010).

Other clients include Google Inc. and YouTube, HP Inc., Dell Inc., Huawei Device Co. Ltd., Property & Casualty Management Systems Inc., The MathWorks Inc. and Qualcomm Inc.

When HP was sued in the Eastern District of Texas by Cypress Lake Software Inc., Schwartz worked to move the case nearer to HP’s home base in Northern California—and to buy some time. The plaintiff accused HP’s Chromebooks of infringing seven patents related to media players and user interface techniques. At the claim construction phase, Schwartz successfully argued that many of the asserted patent claims are invalid as indefinite. Four patents remain in the case. When a Texas federal judge denied her motion to transfer the case, Schwartz went over his head.

“We had a very strong mandamus petition to the Federal Circuit,” she said. “We pulled together a compelling brief and the circuit agreed with us. It’s now in discovery on a slower track. That gives us time to key on some issues.” Cypress Lake Software Inc. v. HP Inc., 6:17-cv-00462 (E.D. Tex., filed Aug. 11, 2017); 5:18-cv-6144 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 5, 2018).

In July, Schwartz will represent pro bono a Guatemalan woman in asylum proceedings in San Francisco.

“Jones Day has a project in Laredo, Texas, where women are in ICE detention, and my client bonded out and came to San Francisco to be with a family member,” she said. “She has a strong case with heartbreaking claims. When you’re dealing with dollars all day, this puts what you do in perspective.”

—John Roemer