Eric Acker is a partner and trial lawyer in the firm’s Intellectual Property Group. Mr. Acker has tried more than 50 trials (including more than 47 jury trials) in courtrooms across the country.
Mr. Acker’s recent trials have involved a variety of technologies and significant legal issues. In the high-profile SCO v. Novell case, following a three-week trial, the jury affirmed our client Novell’s ownership of the copyrights to the UNIX software code and rejected SCO’s claim for damages of $100 to $200 million. Mr. Acker received a 2012 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year Award (CLAY Award) for the defense of Novell. Mr. Acker also successfully defended generic drug manufacturer Sandoz in trials under the Hatch-Waxman Act involving the MS drug Copaxone and the ICU sedative Precedex. During the past several years, Mr. Acker has tried patent cases in numerous jurisdictions, including New York, New Jersey, Utah, California, Texas and Massachusetts.
In addition to winning the CLAY award in 2012, Mr. Acker was named the 2014 Best Lawyers in America San Diego Litigation Patent Lawyer of the Year. He is also recommended as a leading lawyer by Best Lawyers in America 2009-2015 and Legal 500 US 2013, and was named a “California Local Litigation Star” in the 2013 and 2014 issues of Benchmark Litigation.
Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster in 1999, Mr. Acker spent ten years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of Columbia and the Southern District of California. He is a past Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference for the Southern District of California, and also a Master in the Louis Welsh Inn of Court, San Diego Chapter.
Mr. Acker was Phi Beta Kappa at the University of California at Berkeley where he received his B.S. He received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he served as an Associate Editor of the Michigan Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.
