Jennifer J. Schmidt

Schmidt specializes in patent litigation as a partner at Morrison & Foerster. She holds an electrical engineering and computer science degree from Harvard and a law degree from Yale, enabling her to master details of clients' technologies and legal concerns.

Clients include Amazon.com Inc., Spotify AB, Kaltura Inc., Symantec Corp. (now NortonLifeLock Inc.) and Nevro Corp.

As with most, the pandemic has changed her life. "Even under normal circumstances, this career can be stressful," Schmidt said in an email interview, "and I have always surrounded myself with a supportive environment at home and a strong team in the office. The shelter in place orders changed that support dynamic at home with respect to childcare, and while that has presented challenges to my workday, the reward has been more joy, laughter, and happy chaos with my 18-month old son than I ever hoped to be able to share at home with him."

She added, "Thankfully, my team at work has always been close. Building on those strong relationships and pivoting to video conferences whenever practicable, we have remained in constant contact and have not missed a beat with respect to client work. The lines between private and work lives are more blurred than ever, and I am proud that we are working with a heightened respect and compassion for the unique challenges people are facing right now."

Schmidt represents Amazon and led the joint defense group in an International Trade Commission investigation and parallel district court litigation over filament LED light bulbs, in which the University of California asserted four patents against several major retailers. Certain Filament Light-Emitting Diodes and Products Containing Same, 337-TA-1172 (ITC, filed July 30, 2019); Regents of the University of California v. Amazon.com Inc., 19-06571 (C.D. Cal., filed July 30, 2019).

As she was preparing to present the opening statement at the ITC evidentiary hearing in April 2020, the regents withdrew the complaint rather than go to trial. The district court action remains stayed with a status conference set for September.

Schmidt is defending Symantec in an eight-patent network security case that has transferred venues from Texas to Delaware and is now in the Northern District. She leads the MoFo team on litigation strategy; the case is currently stayed pending inter partes review. CUPP Cybersecurity LLC v. Symantec Corp., 3:19-cv-00298 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 17, 2019).

She said her engineering and computer science degrees are useful.

"My engineering background allows me to climb the learning curve faster when digging in on a client's technology. I can converse technically with the client to understand their products at a deep level and then zero in on how to present those technical concepts in terms that judges and juries will respond to."

-- John Roemer