Brett Williamson is a Partner in O’Melveny’s Newport Beach and New York offices and a founding member of the Intellectual Property and Technology Practice within the Litigation Department. He focuses on representing technology companies in intellectual property matters, with an emphasis on patent infringement, technology trade secrets, and antitrust litigation. He has been consistently named a “Super Lawyer” in Intellectual Property Litigation in a survey conducted by Law & Politics Media Inc. and published in Los Angeles Magazine (2007-14), and he has been described as “a skilled and very practical patent litigator” and a “notable trade secret lawyer” by Legal 500. Brett is also a longtime member of the Firm’s administrative leadership team, and served a five year term (2006-2011) as Managing Partner of the Newport Beach office.
Illustrative Professional Experience
Brett is one of the firm’s most seasoned litigators, with over 25 years of experience prosecuting and defending patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, and antitrust cases in the computer hardware and software, medical technology, consumer products, electronics, telecommunications, and semiconductor industries. His litigation experience includes technologies as diverse as artificial respirators, neurological therapies, cardioplegic pharmaceuticals, automated loan origination and financial services, optoelectronic transceivers, surface emitting lasers, wireless networking methods, gaming machines and systems, biometric sensors, thermal printers, video conferencing, sports trading cards, and digital rights management and encryption software.
Recent Engagements
Brett recently prevailed in a three-week trial for a global leader in the development of innovative pharmaceutical and medical device products involving misappropriation of trade secrets against a major competitor relating to the marketing of the client's leading pharmaceutical product. Brett also represented the company in a Lanham Act case against the same competitor.
Brett is lead counsel for an international consumer electronics company in defense of a complaint filed in the “rocket docket” Eastern District of Virginia, alleging infringement of six patents directed to smartphone technology and a system for processing and transmitting multimedia content received via wireless networks onto alternative display devices. In the first phase of litigation at the trial court, Brett and his team obtained final judgments of non-infringement on all patents-in-suit. Related cases remain pending.
Brett represented a global leader in the design, manufacture, and sale of computerized gaming machines and systems in defending a patent infringement claim involving multi-line slot machines. Following a favorable claim construction after the Markman hearing, the client prevailed on a motion for summary judgment resulting in a full dismissal of all claims, which was affirmed by the Federal Circuit on appeal (521 F.3d 1328 (2008)). Brett also served as lead litigation counsel for the client in other major patent cases, including successful infringement claims against a competitor in the District of Delaware, and prevailing on antitrust counterclaims brought in the District of Nevada.
Brett currently represents the successor-in-interest to a pioneering Internet services company in enforcement of a patent covering web-based video conferencing systems and methods against multiple defendants.
Central Admixture Pharmacy Services, Inc. v. Advanced Cardiac Solutions. Brett represented plaintiff CAPS and the inventor/assignee, Dr. Gerald Buckberg, in a case involving a patent for intravenous pharmaceuticals used during open heart surgery to minimize heart muscle damage caused by the interruption of blood flow. At trial, Brett successfully proved willful infringement, and defeated counterclaims alleging invalidity, false advertising under the Lanham Act, false marking under the Patent Act, and Walker Process monopolization under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. The Court entered a permanent injunction, estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars in recovered sales revenue.
Brett represented the largest Southern California retail banking and lending institution in multi-defendant patent infringement litigation involving claims to a process for evaluating the credit of prospective home mortgage borrowers.
Brett represents a leading retailer of office supplies in defending an infringement complaint on a patent that claims a method for authentication of Internet-based transactions. He has previously defended several other companies in similar cases, all of which settled on favorable terms for the clients.
Brett represented a leading provider of infrastructure solutions for wireless communications networks in the enforcement of patents covering an innovative method of connecting components to a multi-layer printed circuit board while minimizing power demands.
TransAct Technologies, Inc. v. FutureLogic, Inc. Brett serves as lead litigation counsel for FutureLogic, a leader in thermal printer design and technology. In bi-coastal patent litigation brought by FutureLogic’s principal competitor, Brett successfully defeated a motion for a preliminary injunction at the outset of the case and, after defeating a renewed request for a preliminary injunction a year later, the case settled on very favorable terms with FutureLogic obtaining a worldwide, perpetual license to the patents at issue and all related applications, patents and foreign counterparts. Brett also represents FutureLogic in other litigation, including cases to enforce the client’s innovative “dual port” promotional printing patent against another competitor.
