Denise De Mory

De Mory teamed up with law partner Henry C. Bunsow and a group of longtime colleagues to found their own intellectual property boutique in 2012, where she’s the managing partner.

She and her colleagues represent Ramot, the technology transfer unit of Tel Aviv University, in patent infringement claims against Cisco Systems Inc. The patents involve optical digital-to-analog technology. The plaintiff has recently filed an additional suit against a Cisco acquisition, Acacia Communications Inc., over the same patents. Ramot at Tel Aviv University Ltd. v. Cisco Systems Inc., 2:19-cv-00225 (E.D. Tex., filed June 12, 2019).

Cisco filed three inter partes review petitions challenging the validity of the patents; the Patent Trial & Appeal Board rejected each petition. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied Cisco’s appeal and its mandamus petition. Trial was set for March 2021, but Cisco has returned to the PTAB with reexamination petitions, which are pending. “Our client has done fundamental optical research regarding moving information at the speed of light, and we believe Cisco is using this patented technology,” De Mory said.

Meanwhile, the trial is stayed. “I had five trials on my schedule as of January 1, and there’s only one left,” De Mory said. “Everything else has been pushed back.”

She represents inventor David Lambeth, an emeritus professor at Carnegie Mellon University, in litigation over his patented enabling magnetic structure that will produce the next generation of hard drive technologies with enhanced storage capacities. Lambeth’s company retained Bunsow De Mory to take over the case from another firm. Defendants Western Digital and Toshiba have settled; a trial against Seagate Technology is set for January 2022. Lambeth Magnetic Structures LLC v. Seagate Technology (US) Holdings Inc., 2:16-cv-00538 (W.D. Penn., filed April 29, 2016).

“It was very competitive when we sought to get this case, but we got it and took over and got up to speed really fast,” De Mory said. “It’s really complicated technology, a big lift. And that’s what we do.”

— John Roemer