Brett J. Williamson

O'Melveny & Myers LLP

Newport Beach

Intellectual property litigation

Williamson is one of O'Melveny's most seasoned intellectual property litigators, and he continues to lodge big wins that include two recent victories for client Endo International PLC and its subsidiary Par Pharmaceutical, one on the defense side and one as the plaintiff.

The most recent victory occurred Feb. 20 when U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in New Jersey granted a summary judgment motion he argued, dismissing an antitrust lawsuit against Par involving Vasostrict, the only medicine of its kind approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Fresenius Kabi USA LLC v. Par Sterile Products LLC et al., 16-CV04544 (D. N.J., filed July 27, 2016).

Vasostrict also was the center of the plaintiff victory: Williamson in 2018 secured an injunction against QuVa Pharma's launch of a product rivaling Vasostrict. It's part of a trade secrets misappropriation lawsuit, and Williamson's team successfully moved for expedited discovery before persuading U.S. District Judge Brian R. Martinotti of New Jersey to grant the preliminary injunction.

QuVa appealed, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction in April 2019. Par Pharmaceutical Inc. et al. v. Quva Pharma Inc. et al., 17-CV06115 (D. N.J., filed Aug. 14, 2017).

Williamson also recently defended Real Housewives of Orange County star Shannon Beador against defamation claims brought by the ex-husband of a former castmate.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Layne H. Melzer granted Williamson's motion to dismiss under California's anti-SLAPP statute, "agreeing with our argument that to punish Beador's speech about the plaintiff, involving matters relating to a matter of public interest, not only violated the First Amendment, but also impermissibly infringed on her right of publicity and her related intellectual property rights to her image," Williamson said. Bellino et al. v. Judge et al., 2018-01008497 (O.C. Sup. Ct., filed July 27, 2018).

His current cases "are more typical patent infringement cases," he said, including a case in the Eastern District of Texas for Resideo Technologies Inc., a recent spinoff of Honeywell International and a case in the Central District of California in which he's leading the defense team for the streaming service Hulu.

Williamson said he sees his practice "continuing to grow robustly, in large part because the creative teams we have been able to field in complex cross-practice group matters for our clients, as exemplified by the above cases."

"We anticipate our practice will continue to cut across areas of antitrust, life sciences, and entertainment," Williamson said.

-- Meghann M. Cuniff