Heidi Keefe

A former astrophysicist, Heidi L. Keefe is a Cooley LLP partner who joined the firm in 2009. She is currently on the board of directors. Her complex patent litigation practice includes a track record of more than 40 appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, usually as the appellee.

Clients include Facebook, Apple Inc., HTC Corp., King.com Ltd., LinkedIn Corp., ServiceNow Inc. and Varian Medical Systems Inc.

"Her resume includes applause from Facebook's lead IP attorney, who said: "In patent law, there are two kinds of lawyers... there are lawyers who can stand up in court and talk to a jury, and there are lawyers who can get into the technical weeds. Heidi is one of the few lawyers that bridges the gap and can do both roles. That's a rare combination. She has a down-home personality and has an innate ability to explain technology to laypeople in a way that they get it."

Keefe studied astrophysics at Wellesley and MIT as an undergraduate. "I wanted to be a lobbyist for the space program, which I thought was underfunded," she said. "Then I realized I was terrible at politics. At law school, a professor told me I was good at explaining science and suggested I take some IP courses. That did it."

In defense of Facebook (now Meta Platforms Inc.), Keefe and her Cooley team achieved a rare patent infringement summary judgment win by persuading U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright of Waco, Texas, to toss the plaintiffs' case a week before trial. USC IP Partnership LP v. Facebook Inc., 6:20-cv-00555 (W.D. Tex., filed June 22, 2020).

The patent at issue determines a website visitor's intent in order to suggest webpages for viewing. It uses an algorithm that collects and analyzes data gathered from the visitor's browsing history.

Keefe argued that the plaintiffs' patent was invalid because its website navigation feature was merely directed to an abstract idea and only recited well-known and generic technologies. Albright had told Keefe that he was inclined to send the case to trial, but that he was willing to listen to her oral argument to the contrary. When counsel finished, he took a brief recess, then announced he'd grant her summary judgment motion.

"I looked at the client, like, 'Did that just happen?'" Keefe said. "It was a pleasant surprise." According to published reports, it was the first-ever ruling of its kind by Albright.

The ruling is currently under review at the Federal Circuit; Keefe appeared for the oral argument in January. "I think the argument went phenomenally well, but I'm knocking on my desk as I say so," she said.

--John Roemer