Sarah Chapin Columbia is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is head of the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group. Her practice focuses on intellectual property litigation including patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret matters. She also counsels clients on overall intellectual property strategy and positioning, including litigation avoidance. She also has extensive experience in representing clients in private arbitration proceedings under the rules and procedures of the International Chamber of Commerce, Swiss Chamber of Commerce, World Intellectual Property Organization, American Arbitration Association and other organizations.
Sarah has appeared in several state, federal district and appellate courts. She represents clients across several industries including semiconductor, biotechnology, internet, hardware and software, medical device and manufacturing companies.
Sarah is active in her local community. She is an officer on the board of Family Service of Greater Boston, a member of the Boston Athenaeum, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Science and the New England Aquarium and has previously served on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Charlestown. She also participates in the Wesleyan University Alumni Association and Alumni Schools Committee.
She is the author of “Irreparable Harm and Injunctions,” 2007 Leadership Forum, PricewaterhouseCoopers, February 2007 and the co-author of “Beware Patent Trolls,” Risk Management Magazine, April 2006.
Sarah has been highly recognized as a leader in her field by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 United States and Benchmark Litigation. She is also recognized in the 2011 editions of Best Lawyers in America and IAM Patent Litigation 250 - The World's Leading Patent Litigators . Sarah earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, her MPP from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and her B.A. in economics from Wesleyan University. She is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association. She is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Federal Circuit, First Circuit, Second Circuit, Ninth Circuit, Supreme Court of the United States, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Representative Experience
Patent Litigation
- Represented Akamai in two separate patent litigations involving internet content delivery and traffic management technology. Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. Speedera Networks, Inc., D Massachusetts and Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc., D Massachusetts
- Represented Akamai in patent infringement litigation involving live streaming content over the internet. Two-Way Media LLC v. Akamai Technologies, Inc., SD Texas
- Represented Ciba Vision Corporation in patent infringement litigation involving contact lenses. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. v. Ciba Vision Corporation, MD Florida
- Lead counsel for Citrix in a patent case accusing Citrix' Go-to-Meeting and Go-to-Webinar products. Pixion v. Citrix, ND California.
- Represented plaintiff in patent litigation involving process for ultra violet grafting on non-woven polymer films. Crane & Co. v. Holingsworth & Vose Corp., D Massachusetts
- Represented Furukawa Electric North America and its subsidiary, OFS-Fitel, in patent infringement litigation involving optical fiber products and methods for manufacturing them. Furukawa Electric North America, Inc. v. Yangtze Fibre & Cable Company, Ltd., D Massachusetts
- Lead counsel for Infineon in a case brought by Syspatronics alleging patent infringement in the field of semiconductor chip encryption. SPA Syspatronics v. Infineon, ED Pennsylvania.
- Represented Infineon N.A. and Infineon A.G. in patent infringement litigation involving wireless LAN technology. Wi-LAN, Inc. v. Westerll, et al., ED Texas
- Represented defendants in patent infringement litigation involving switching mechanisms for power converters. VLT v. Lucent Technologies, Inc. and Tyco Electronics Power Systems, Inc., D Massachusetts
- Represented Lycos, Inc. in patent infringement litigation involving recommendation software. Lycos, Inc. v. Blockbuster, et al., D Massachusetts
- Lead counsel for MKS in three cases. The plaintiff, Brooks, asserted infringement of several patents in the fields of mass flow controllers and monometers. Brooks Instruments v. MKS Instruments, ED Texas (two cases) and D Massachusetts.
- Lead counsel for Novartis Vaccines in an action under 28 USC 146 for District Court review of an interference decision by the Board of Patent and Trademark Appeals and Interferences. Obtained summary judgement for Novartis on all asserted claims. Alpha Vax v. Novartis Vaccines, D Massachusetts.
- Represented Teradyne Diagnostics and Teradyne, Inc. in patent litigation involving diesel engine diagnostic test equipment. Teradyne Diagnostic Solutions, Ltd. v. Mission Valley Ford Truck Sales, Inc., ED Michigan; Mission Valley Ford Truck Sales, Inc. v. Teradyne, Inc., ND California
- Lead counsel for Tria in a patent infringement action in which Palomar asserted infringement of two patents in the field of laser hair removal. Palomar Corp. v. Tria Beauty, D Massachusetts.
- Represented defendant in patent infringement litigation involving embroidering methods. Chien-Lu-Lin v. Twins Enterprises, CD California
- Represented Voice Signal in three separate patent litigations involving speech recognition and mobile communications technology. ScanSoft, Inc. v. Voice Signal Technologies, Inc., D Massachusetts; Nuance Technologies, Inc. v. Voice Signal Technologies, Inc., D Massachusetts; Voice Signal Technologies, Inc. v. Nuance Technologies, Inc., WD Pennsylvania
Arbitration
- Represented claimant in action for breach of acquisition agreement an d fraud against sellers of WED. Aseco Corp. v. WED, International Chamber of Commerce arbitration proceeding, London, England
- Represented respondent in arbitration under Share Purchase Agreement. Nitto Boseki Co. Ltd. v. Diego Scari, International Chamber of Commerce proceeding, Milan, Italy
- Represented respondent in arbitration under License Agreement. Balazs v. Pharmacia AB, American Arbitration Association proceeding, Boston, Massachusetts
Other Litigation
- Represented declaratory judgment plaintiff in trademark infringement litigation involving wine labeling. JuiceBox Wine Company LLC v. Constellation Wines U.S., Inc., D Massachusetts
- Represented defendants in theft of trade secrets and breach of non-competition dispute. Cambridge Technology Partners v. Gen3 Partners, Middlesex Superior Court (Massachusetts)
- Represented defendant in purported class action alleging failure of insulated glass window units. Wasco Products Inc. v. Southwall Technologies Inc., ND California
Education
- Harvard Law School, J.D. (magna cum laude), 1987
- John F. Kennedy School of Government, MPP, 1987
- Wesleyan University, B.A., 1982
