Overview

Nitika Gupta Fiorella focuses her practice on complex patent litigation spanning a wide range of technologies, including medical devices, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas technology, software, automotive design and innovation, and polymer chemistry. 

A skilled litigator, Nitika has led or overseen dozens of cases. Her extensive experience in the courtroom includes examining witnesses; arguing jury instructions and judgment as a matter of law at trial; and arguing claim construction, summary judgment, and post-trial motions.

In addition to District Court litigation, Nitika has a robust appellate practice in which she has led over a dozen appeals and argued many of them before the Federal Circuit. She has also worked on post-grant proceedings, as well as matters before the International Trade Commission.

Nitika rejoined Fish & Richardson in 2016 after serving as a law clerk for the Honorable Kent A. Jordan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (2014-2015) and for the Honorable Chief Judge Sharon Prost of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (2015-2016). Prior to attending law school at New York University, Nitika attended the University of Delaware as a Eugene DuPont Scholar, where she obtained dual degrees in chemical engineering and political science. She is also fluent in Hindi.

In her leisure time, Nitika can be found cheering on all the Philadelphia sports teams or concocting interesting cocktails as an amateur mixologist.

Experience

  • Confidential Client: The Fish team represented a major chemical company as patent owner in a litigation involving two patents related to a copolymer used to coat plenum wire cables. Fish filed the litigation against the client’s main competitor in 2018. The litigation was stayed pending inter partes review, where the PTAB first found the claims unpatentable. Nitika led the effort on appeal, where she was able to secure a rare reversal of the PTAB’s decision at the Federal Circuit and revive the patents. Back in District Court, the Fish team carried the client through favorable Markman rulings, including on the key term upon which the plaintiff’s noninfringement argument relied. The parties litigated up to the eve of trial before entering into a favorable settlement agreement for Fish’s client.
  • Confidential Client: The Fish team represented an oil and gas company in a patent litigation where it significantly reduced their client’s damages exposure by eliminating two key patents through IPRs and persuading the court to strike the patentee’s damages expert from the case. After Nitika successfully defended the PTAB wins at the Federal Circuit, the case went to trial in November 2021. There, Fish was able to fend off a damages ask of hundreds of millions of dollars, allowing the patentee less than 5% of its total ask. The case is currently on appeal at the Federal Circuit.  
  • Confidential Client: The Fish team won two high-profile, precedential decisions at the Federal Circuit for a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer. In both wins, Fish convinced the court to reinstate the $235 million jury verdict Fish obtained for the client in June 2017 for induced infringement of the client’s heart disease drug. 
  • Confidential Client: The Fish team represented a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company before the PTAB and Federal Circuit, where it was able to secure the client’s status as the first inventor of a breakthrough oral drug for patients suffering from low testosterone. The client’s competitor claimed that it was the first to invent such a drug, and pointed to its earlier patent application as support. Fish filed an interference to settle this priority dispute, and the PTAB agreed with Fish that its client invented the testosterone drug before the competitor, rendering the competitor’s patents invalid. On appeal, Nitika argued in the first-ever COVID-forced telephonic oral argument held by the Federal Circuit, where she convinced the Court to summarily affirm the PTAB’s finding.  
  • Confidential Client: The Fish team defended a major chemical company against a patent litigation suit related to a process for making a specific kind of refrigerant. After securing key wins during claim construction, and on the eve of summary judgment briefing, the parties entered into a favorable settlement agreement for Fish’s client.  
  • Parallel Networks Licensing LLC v. Microsoft Corp. (D. Del.): The Fish team defended Microsoft in a suit brought by Parallel Networks, alleging 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 non-infringement on every claim. Fish then successfully defended their win on appeal at the Federal Circuit.  

Testimonials 

  • “[Nitika’s] technical ability, her writing, and her critical thinking is just superb. She has such a wonderful client relationship. She is a superstar, and I just want to make that known.” — Client Testimonial 
  • “Nitika Fiorella's strengths are that she is very good at briefing and arguing legal points and motions.” — Client Testimonial  

Professional associations

  • South Asian Bar Association, President (2022-Present), Board Member (2017-2022)
  • Innocence Delaware, Board Member
  • Third Circuit Lawyers Advisory Committee, Chair

Pro bono activities

  • Federal Civil Panel
  • Immigration Equality