Bunsow De Mory LLP

The success story of Bunsow De Mory LLP comes from a collection of 30 years' worth of close relationships among like-minded, quick thinking attorneys from some of the biggest law firms in the world who value family and work life balance.

That's according to founding partner Denise De Mory, who launched the firm with fellow name partner Henry C. Bunsow. The pair met 30 years ago after getting their start in some of the world's most profitable law firms, like Jones Day, Keker Van Nest and Howrey LLP.

A decade later, Bunsow De Mory is a majority women-owned firm that has also prioritized diversity. The firm's dozen lawyers specializing in plaintiffs' side litigation in security, patent, intellectual property and trade secrets matters.

Plaintiffs-centered patent work is one of the toughest gigs right now, where the firm often fights for inventors, universities and smaller entities against major corporations with significant deep pockets, De Mory said. She noted that the firm regularly litigates in multiple venues against global law firms and must be focused on formulating an efficient winning strategy from the start for small clients and the firm's larger established clients.

"Most of our cases end up being in electronics and high tech, but we do a fair amount in the bio field as well, so we're not just limited to tech," said partner Corey Johanningmeier. "We have cases against all the big names like Cisco, Google and Samsung."

Many of the firm's clients include university professors, small companies and individual inventors who came up with novel innovations that could change the world but could not gain as much market success as a company such as Google, he said.

"It's kind of like a David and Goliath story," Johanningmeier said. "We all come from big law firms, brought many years of experience to big law firms, where there is almost always a defense-side focus in patent cases. So we know how it goes, what is essential and what is not. We know how to play and beat that game. We started a practice that is unique in its level of success."

Another significant aspect of the firm's practice is its capabilities in protecting inter partes review, which is led by partner Lauren Robinson. The firm handles inter partes review for major tech clients.

"For a firm of our size, it is remarkable the number of IPRs we successfully handle each year," De Mory said.

Some of the firm's notable representations include their work for Ramot, the technology transfer unit of Tel Aviv University, in patent claims against Cisco Systems Inc. Ramot at Tel Aviv University Ltd. v. Cisco Systems, Inc. 2:19-cv-00225-JRG (E.D. Texas, filed June 12, 2019)

The patents involve optical digital-to-analog technology and the litigation has been going on for nearly three years. With more than a dozen different proceedings going on, it's a single case that involves several complicated layers and different venues.

"We're a team of a few lawyers going up against a very large, well-funded organization, but so far, we've been winning," Johanningmeier said. The defendant company filed some IPRs at the US Patent and Trademark Office, which the firm defeated. The result was appealed at the federal circuit, which Bunsow De Mory LLP defeated again.

The firm has another case where they represent a small company, Theta IP, against tech giant Samsung in the Western District of Texas, which is set for trial in January. The patents involve power saving technology for mobile devices. Another case ready to go to trial is on behalf of Carnegie Mellon University professor David Lambeth, in litigation over his patented enabling magnetic structure that will produce the next generation of hard drive technologies with enhanced storage capacities.

One of the firm's biggest challenges in the pandemic has been counseling clients through litigation delays, the partners said.

"We're hopeful we can do trials soon," De Mory said. "Our goal for the next year is to win all three."

-- Gina Kim