Ben L. Wagner

Ben L. Wagner began working at Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP in 2019 as a partner in the intellectual property section, joining its leadership team last year. He takes pride in his careful, selective approach to litigation strategy. Instead of trying to gain an advantage on as many issues as possible, Wagner chooses to focus hard on a few key issues to avoid getting sucked into random, costly disputes.

“My approach is: I don’t like to do scorched earth litigation,” Wagner said. “I think that it is inefficient and generally not helpful to most companies.”

Specializing in trademark, copyright and patent litigation, Wagner is also the pro bono partner of Troutman Pepper’s San Diego office, managing all the pro bono opportunities for the local office.

He is proud of the comprehensive copyright and trademark enforcement programs that he runs for Rylee + Cru, a baby and children’s clothing brand, and Freeplay Music, which has one of the largest libraries of online music in the world.

“We’ve had to develop a very sophisticated program that makes sure genuine articles are in the marketplace and that we are getting rid of counterfeits,” Wagner said of Rylee + Cru in an interview. He was lead counsel for multiple lawsuits against counterfeiters, including in Rylee and Cru Inc. v. Anonymous Ultimate Licensee of QuincyMae.shop et al., 22-cv-07509, (N.D. Cal., filed Nov. 29, 2022).

For Freeplay, Wagner has led the effort in resolving half a dozen major infringement cases in the past year, including Freeplay Music, LLC v. Media Research Center, 1:22-cv-00073 (E.D. Virg., filed Jan. 24, 2022).

Wagner also played a big part in a small biotech company’s victory against Pfizer Inc. for allegedly infringing on patents to develop the COVID-19 vaccine. Allele Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Pfizer Inc. et al., 3:20-cv-01958, (S.D. Cal., filed Oct. 5, 2020).

The case was resolved favorably on confidential terms and Wagner said he and his team stood their ground against the mountain of discovery requests Pfizer rained on them. He did not let the pharmaceutical company push him around and every single one of Pfizer’s requests to compel were denied, he added.

Another significant victory Wagner was involved in was Lontex Corporation v. Nike Inc., 2:18-cv-05623 (E.D. Penn., filed Dec. 31, 2018), which was a conflict over the “Cool Compression” trademark. He attributed the success to the witnesses he worked hard to get on the stand: people the jurors could relate to and understand that testified they were confused to see Nike products with “Cool Compression” on them, mistakenly believing that Lontex was acquired by or had some sort of partnership with Nike.

—Jonathan Lo