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Fish & Richardson Named 2017 Delaware Regional Powerhouse By Law360

Fish & Richardson has been named a 2017 Delaware Regional Powerhouse by Law360. Fish was one of four firms recognized as part of Law360's annual regional Powerhouse series, which selects firms based on their significant accomplishments in the region over the last year.

Fish is one of the top firms handling patent litigation and Hatch Waxman ANDA cases in the District of Delaware, which is one of the busiest district courts in the country for these types of disputes. From July 2016 to July 2017, Fish completed 29 cases in the District of Delaware and currently has 111 more cases pending.

Fish won a blockbuster $235 million jury verdict for GlaxoSmithKline LLC (GSK) against Teva Pharmaceuticals after a six-day trial in D. Del in June 2017. The jury found GSK's patent for its Coreg drug to treat congestive heart failure valid, and that Teva willfully infringed it when labeling its generic version of the drug for that indication during the time it was still patent protected.

A $56.9 million win for SRI International against Cisco Systems, Inc. in May 2017 included an $8 million attorneys' fees award from a court that rarely awards fees, and doubled damages award based on the jury's original willfulness verdict.

Fish principal Frank Scherkenbach, who led the "David versus Goliath" win for SRI, told Law360, "Wilmington is a very sophisticated court. It has a long tradition of sophisticated legal practice. Fish was among the first non-native Delaware firms to locate there, for good reason."

Fish also secured a huge jury win for Microsoft against Parallel Networks, a well-known patent assertion entity, in May 2017. Parallel had sued Microsoft over alleged patent infringement of two patents by Microsoft's Windows Server and Windows Sharepoint products, Azure Web Apps, and the Microsoft.com, Bing and MSN websites. After a four-day trial, the jury returned a verdict for Microsoft in under one hour, finding noninfringement on every claim.

Law360 also noted that the GSK and Microsoft cases were first and second chaired by women - Juanita Brooks, "one of Fish's top litigators," co-led GSK with Betsy Flanagan and co-led Microsoft with Martina Hufnal. "Fish has a strong commitment to making people the best trial lawyers they can be," said Flanagan. "Our firm believes in the next generation and the younger attorneys, and more seasoned attorneys take the time to train and mentor us," added Hufnal.