Dr. Michelle S. Rhyu is a partner in Cooley's Intellectual Property group in the Litigation department. Dr. Rhyu has almost two decades of experience representing industry leaders and Fortune 500 companies, with a primary focus on high stakes disputes in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. She has extensive experience leading litigation and trial teams, has argued at the Federal Circuit and has led briefing to the Supreme Court.
Dr. Rhyu has litigated cases involving small molecule drug compounds, pharmaceutical formulations, monoclonal antibodies, biofuels, hormone receptors, gene expression technology, and medical therapies. She has experience with Hatch-Waxman litigation and regularly presents seminars on the abbreviated regulatory pathway for Biosimilars (BPCI Act). She joined the firm in 1996 and is resident in the Palo Alto office.
In 2014, Dr. Rhyu was recognized for her excellence in patent litigation and was named one of the "Top 250 Women in IP" by Managing Intellectual Property. She has also been named to The Recorder's 2013 "Women Leaders in Technology Law" list, which recognizes 50 female attorneys in California who have "demonstrated leadership and expertise in solving the most pressing legal concerns companies can face."
Dr. Rhyu partners with her clients to understand their business objectives and technologies. Using her scientific training and knowledge of drug development, she develops comprehensive technical analyses and crafts appropriate litigation strategy. From this position, she focuses on simplifying complex scientific concepts to educate and persuade judges and jurors.
Recently, Dr. Rhyu served as litigation and trial counsel in a successful bet-the-company arbitration for Gilead Sciences, Inc. A competitor challenged Gilead's exclusive rights to the breakthrough hepatitis C virus drug, Sovaldi®. In a dispute that turned on the interpretation of a key technical term in a collaboration agreement, the arbitration panel ruled that the competitor had no rights to Sovaldi® and was not entitled to any relief.
She also served as litigation and trial counsel for Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in a district court case involving rights to a cancer therapeutic compound. During the second week of a jury trial, Onyx obtained a settlement achieving its principal litigation objective – a significant stake in the disputed compound -- together with additional benefits that could not have been achieved with a jury verdict alone.
She is currently litigation and trial counsel for Gevo in a complex multi-patent, multi-case patent infringement litigation pending in the District of Delaware relating to production of isobutanol in microorganisms. Gevo successfully defended against Butamax's Motion for Preliminary Injunction, and obtained Summary Judgment of Non-Infringement in a decision that is pending appeal.
Dr. Rhyu received her J.D., with distinction, from Stanford Law School, and earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of California, San Francisco. Her graduate work elucidating asymmetric cell division in drosophila neurogenesis was featured on the cover of the journal Cell. She obtained her B.A., with honors, in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Rhyu served as a law clerk for the Honorable James Ware in the Northern District of California and as an intern for Judge Paul Michel at the U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit. She is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Representative Matters:
Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC v. Gevo, Inc. (D. Del.) - representing Gevo in pending multi-patent disputes relating to production of isobutanol in microorganisms
Hoffmann-La Roche v. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (AAA Arbitration, ICDR) - represented Gilead in contract and patent dispute for exclusive rights to Sovaldi®, obtained ruling in favor of Gilead
Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Bayer Corp. (N.D. Cal.) - represented Onyx in collaboration agreement dispute relating to regorafenib (Stivarga®), obtained very favorable settlement for Onyx
Zenith Electronics Corp. v. Westinghouse Digital Electronics LLC . (E.D. Texas) - represented Zenith in patent dispute relating to digital television standards technology, obtained summary judgment of infringement and damages award of $70M
King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. et al. v. Sandoz, Inc. (D. N.J.) - represented patentee Pharmaceutical IP Holding in Hatch-Waxman patent case involving metaxalone
Santillan v. Mukasey, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice (N.D. Cal) - represented M. Santillan and similarly situated class in a pro bono class action suit to enable immigrants to obtain timely documentation of lawful resident status; won summary judgment and injunction, after which a negotiated settlement was entered
Stanford University v. Roche Molecular Systems (N.D. Cal.) - represented Stanford in patent dispute related to methods of monitoring HIV therapy
Biogen v. Corixa Corp. (S.D. Cal.) - represented Corixa in patent dispute related to radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies, settled favorably
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies v. Ligand (AAA Arbitration) - represented The Salk Institute in a patent dispute regarding hormone receptor screening technology that settled favorably
