Juanita R. Brooks

Brooks has been busy arguing cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, handling six since the summer of 2019.

She scored a major victory last month when a Federal Circuit panel reinstated a $235.5 million patent infringement verdict for GlaxoSmithKline LLC against generic drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.

The dispute concerns a drug called carvedilol used to treat congestive heart failure and high blood pressure that was sold by her client under the name Koreg.

A Delaware jury found Teva liable for inducing doctors to infringe the GlaxoSmithKline patent. U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark wiped out the verdict, ruling doctors learned of the drug's benefits independently.

Brooks said she prepared for the Federal Circuit argument with the assistance of her longtime Fish & Richardson PC colleague, Craig E. Countryman, who wrote briefs for the appeal but died in August 2019 of lymphoma.

"He helped me prepare for the oral argument from his hospital room," Brooks said. GlaxoSmithKline LLC v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., 18-1976 (Fed. Cir., filed May 16, 2018).

A Teva spokesperson said the company will seek en banc review from the Federal Circuit.

While she handled the GlaxoSmithKline case from the start, Brooks said she often is hired to defend cases on appeal when she played no role in the case at trial.

"It's very challenging to learn a record made by somebody else," she said. "There is a steep learning curve."

Brooks was hired by Microsoft Corp. to defend a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision invalidating a wireless technology patent Evolved Wireless LLC claimed the company and other defendants infringed.

In October 2019, a Federal Circuit panel affirmed the decision that Brooks argued for Microsoft and Apple Inc. Evolved Wireless LLC v. ZTE Inc. et al., 18-2008 (Fed. Cir., filed Oct. 4, 2019).

Brooks also successfully defended Illumina Inc. in a Federal Circuit patent case involving DNA sequencing in a case filed by The Scripps Research Institute. The Scripps Research Institute v. Illumina Inc., 2018-2089 (Fed. Cic., filed Aug. 29, 2019).

-- Craig Anderson