Mark D. Selwyn

Mark D. Selwyn is co-chair of the intellectual property litigation practice group and a member of the litigation/controversy department at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP. He has been with the firm for nearly 30 years.

"I started as a summer associate," said Selwyn, who graduated from Columbia Law School. His current role includes work as an IP strategist as well as a litigator.

In 2023, the WilmerHale IP litigation group won the American Lawyer IP Litigation Firm of the Year award. A Selwyn specialty is in defending against assertions of so-called "standard essential patents" in the U.S. and offshore jurisdiction.

His clients include Apple Inc., Broadcom Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., The Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp. and Ancestry.com LLC.

"We have a long, strong relationship with Apple," Selwyn said. Indeed, over the last three years he has led Apple's litigation with medical technology company Masimo Corp. at both the U.S. International Trade Commission and in the Central District over a blood-oxygen measurement technology used in the Apple Watch.

The long-running, high-stakes fight centers on Masimo's claims of trade secret misappropriation and patent ownership. It has become one of the highest-profile IP disputes in the U.S. Masimo Corp. et al. v. Apple Inc., 8:20-cv-00048 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 9, 2020); Certain Light-Based Physiological Measurement Devices and Components Thereof, 337-TA-1276 (USITA, Aug. 18, 2021).

In the Central District case, retrial following a hung jury is set for November. At a May 2023 trial, the panel voted 6-1 for Apple. Selwyn presented multiple Apple witnesses and conducted the cross-examination of Masimo's witnesses. At the close of evidence, U.S. District Judge James V. Selna of Santa Ana granted Selwyn's motion for judgment as a matter of law on Masimo's misappropriation of alleged business trade secrets claims, knocking out more than $1 billion of claimed damages.

"It was the result of a long effort to present our most persuasive arguments," Selwyn said, declining to be more specific in advance of the retrial.

In the International Trade Commission case, following a ruling for Masimo, Selwyn led Apple's effort to obtain a rare temporary stay in December 2023 of the ITC's remedial orders from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Following that, WilmerHale obtained a decision by the government to approve a redesigned Apple Watch. The upshot was that Apple faced only a one-day interruption of sales of the device.

"This is an interesting time for IP. The word disruption is used a lot, but it applies now as the law tries to catch up with technology and as the Unified Patent Court opens in Europe," Selwyn said.

-- John Roemer