Heidi L. Keefe

Cooley LLP

Palo Alto

Patent litigation

Keefe regularly goes to bat for some of the hottest technology companies in the world. In April, she'll represent Facebook Inc. in a jury trial.

This isn't the first time she'll take the reins for the social media giant. She appeared on Facebook's behalf in front of U.S. District Judge Thomas Selby Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia before he became famous in connection with the Robert Mueller investigation.

She and her team at Cooley defended Facebook and AddThis in a patent infringement suit that targeted the "Like" button. Rembrandt Social Media accused Facebook of willfully infringing two patents covering social media. AddThis was accused of infringing one patent.

"It was all about whether or not Facebook stole the like button. Very quickly, we were able to show them that that's not what this case was about. That's not what their patent covered," Keefe said. "The case morphed into a case about a very low-end backend system. So before the user ever sees anything, kind of like how the information is displayed to a user, we were able to show them that what the user sees here does not depend on the piece of technology that Rembrandt was claiming they invented."

The team created a mock-up to show what the information coming from Facebook would look like without the technology and with it. Keefe and her team successfully showed Facebook did not rely on Rembrandt's technology for its "Like" button to work.

"The judge was unrelenting in his intelligence and in his way of keeping us on our toes, but we matched him. We always had an answer for every question that he asked. And I think we earned his trust and the jury's trust as well. And I think that's why we won," Keefe said.

The trial in the Eastern District of Virginia, known as the "rocket docket," presented unique issues to Keefe and her team, which were overcome by working collaboratively, she said.

"You have to have a team that's willing to challenge each other. Really come together to figure out the right way to explain this. I think at one point we were in court in front of Judge Ellis every week. I was flying back and forth from the West Coast to the East Coast every single week," Keefe said.

Cooley secured a complete defense verdict. The jury issued a ruling of non-infringement and also invalidated the two patents. Rembrandt Social Media LP v. Facebook Inc. et al., 13-CV158 (E.D. Va., filed Feb. 4, 2013).

Keefe, a former astrophysicist, said her background as a scientist helped her become a successful attorney.

"I'm not afraid to ask someone to explain because I know that someone else out there knows more than I do or that there is an answer out there that I don't know," Keefe said. "That is a freedom that not everybody has. And I do think scientists have that because it's OK not to know."

"The whole point of science is to ask the questions that we don't have answers to," she added. "Lawyers think they're supposed to have answers. I have freedom because I'm able to say, I don't know and it's OK."

-- Henrik Nilsson