Christy G. Lea

A chemical engineering degree helps Knobbe Martens partner Christy G. Lea resolve high-stakes patent and trade secret disputes for clients in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. She joined the firm in 2000.

This year she was appointed president of Orange County’s Public Law Center’s board of directors. In 2021, she was named Attorney of the Year by the Orange County Women Lawyers Association for her work advancing women in the legal profession.

Lea said her early science training is useful in the pharmaceutical and medical device cases she pursues for clients. At one point in her undergraduate work at the University of Mississippi, she was a NASA Space Grant Scholar. “It’s still a lot of fun to see inventions and assert patents on them,” she said.

In a prominent challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s authority to set the NHK-Fintiv rule allowing it to decline review based on discretionary factors, Lea is lead counsel for co-plaintiff Edwards Lifesciences LLC. The plaintiffs have alleged that the rule violates the Administrative Procedures Act. Apple Inc. et al. v. Iancu, 5:20-cv-06128 (N.D. Cal., filed Aug. 31, 2020).

The plaintiffs successfully defeated an intervention attempt by a non-profit trade association seeking to eliminate inter partes review altogether. But in November, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila of San Jose dismissed the suit, citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent; Lea has joined the appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The appeal, filed Feb. 8, 2022, contends that Davila was wrong to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds without addressing its merits. Apple Inc. et al. v. Hirshfeld, 22-1249 (F. Cir., filed Dec. 10, 2021). Named defendant Andrew Hirshfeld is the USPTO director, replacing Andre Iancu.

“The PTO’s rule changed things to encourage patent-infringement plaintiffs to engage in forum shopping for jurisdictions that set early trial dates,” Lea said. The rule allows the Patent Trial and Appeals Board to decline review of cases that are under way in parallel district court litigation. “So plaintiffs can potentially avoid an IPR against their patents.”

The odds are steep against the plaintiffs. “It’s a tough appeal,” Lea said. “So far, the Federal Circuit has deflected Fintiv challenges.”

Aiding client Edwards Lifesciences Corp.’s effort to stop a rival from selling a copycat version of a transcatheter aortic heart valve, Lea is co-lead counsel who will handle physician experts for the plaintiff. Edwards Lifesciences Co. v. Meril Inc., 3:19-cv-06593 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 14, 2019).

At issue are false advertising and trademark infringement claims. Trial is set for May 2022. A separate case over patents continues in Europe.

– John Roemer