Lisa S. Glasser

Over the past 12 months or so, Lisa Glasser has successfully tried four patent jury cases, an arbitration and an evidentiary hearing for contempt. Effectively, she put on six trials in a year.

“That’s a lot of trials,” she allowed. “More trials than my usual pace, actually.”

Of course, she’s had help. In particular, she works on almost all her cases along with partner Jason Sheasby.

“I think that’s one of the ways we manage having such a very large number of trials at one time,” Glasser said. “It’s a really wonderful working relationship, and I think it does allow us to be able to take on more trials and not sacrifice … quality because we work so well together.”

The trials included two multimillion-dollar wins against PNC Bank for infringing client United Services Automobile Association’s patents on mobile check-deposit technology. In May, a Texas jury found awarded $218.45 million against the Philadelphia-based bank for willful infringement. The case is now on appeal. United Services Automobile Association v. PNC Bank N.A., 23-cv-1778 (Fed. Cir., filed April 21, 2023).

Then in September, Glasser and the Irell team won another, smaller verdict for USAA over separate patents.

In January, she brought in a $59.5 million verdict as co-lead counsel representing DePuy Synthes, a Johnson & Johnson unit, against a company that the jury found had blatantly copied DePuy’s orthopedic plate to treat a common but severe knee injury in dogs. DePuy Synthes Products Inc. v. Veterinary Orthopedic Implants Inc., 18-cv-01342 (M.D. Fla., filed Nov. 12, 2018).

The jury only took about an hour to reach its verdict. Glasser said that discovery had turned up some internal files indicating the defendant had “literally sent [the DePuy device] out to a knockoff facility to make a new version of it.” That, she added, was “the antithesis of what the American innovation economy is supposed to be about.”

The judge imposed a permanent injunction barring the company from selling any further copies. But it did anyway, Glasser said. That led to the contempt hearing in early April. The parties reached a settlement after two days.

Almost immediately after the DePuy trial ended in January, Glasser and the team went into the arbitration proceeding, which she could not discuss.

And shortly after the contempt hearing, she, Sheasby and other Irell attorneys went to trial in Texas against Samsung for infringing five patents relating to computer memory technology. On April 21, the jury returned a $303.15 million verdict for their client. Netlist, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 2:21-cv-00463 (E.D. Tex., filed Dec. 20, 2021)

As for the rest of this year, Glasser would only say that she and her team are likely to join a few more cases as those trials near.

— Don DeBenedictis