Our Approach

Davis Polk's Intellectual Property Group regularly addresses the IP issues that matter most to our clients. We do so with sensitivity to our clients' objectives and with a sophisticated understanding of the contexts in which these issues may arise, whether among rivals in the marketplace, during a fast-paced transaction or before a jury in a courtroom.

Our IP lawyers can call on industry experience and scientific training to counsel clients regarding IP strategy, analyze and evaluate patent claims, execute IP-focused transactions, and address the range of IP issues that arise in our client's most important and complex business deals.

Our litigators combine high-level trial skills with deep experience in patent law and other areas of intellectual property.

Awards and Rankings

“At Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, the complexity and scope of the IP group’s work indicate it is the match of many larger practices.” Legal 500 U.S. 2011
Davis Polk’s “[v]ery talented [IP] trial attorneys bring the highest quality and best representation one can obtain to the table.” Legal 500 U.S. 2011

Notable Matters

We are representing Comcast Corporation in the corporate, intellectual property and antitrust aspects of its agreement with General Electric to form the NBCUniversal joint venture.
We are representing Cosan S.A. Indústria e Comércio in connection with the proposed formation of a $12 billion joint venture with Shell International Petroleum Company Limited in Brazil for the production of ethanol, sugar and power, and the supply, distribution and retail of transportation fuels.
We advised Symantec Corporation on its acquisition of the authentication and identity security business of VeriSign Inc. for $1.28 billion in cash by way of an asset purchase agreement. The acquisition includes the licensing of the VeriSign trademark and domain name to Symantec.
We advised Palm, Inc. on its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard Company.
We recently advised Comcast Corporation on its minority investment in Houston Regional Sports Network, L.P. and its general partner, including the negotiating of media rights license agreements, on behalf of the network, with the Houston Astros and the Houston Rockets.
We advised Warner Chilcott with LEO Pharma’s re-acquiring of Warner Chilcott’s exclusive product licensing rights in the U.S. to its topical psoriasis treatments, as well as rights to all products in LEO Pharma’s development pipeline, and acquiring all inventories of the products for a one-time cash payment of $1 billion.

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We advised Intermec in resolving its dispute with Symbol Technologies involving patent portfolios directed to wireless (WiFi) and RFID technologies and standards.
We advised Comcast in its negotiation of patent, software and data licenses, and certain ancillary arrangements, with Rovi Corporation (formerly Gemstar-TV Guide International) relating to interactive program guide technology.
We represented Sony Corporation in connection with the enforcement of various Sony patents relating to its consumer electronics technology.
We recently advised Warner Chilcott in connection with its agreement to terminate its existing co-promotion agreement with Novartis and purchase the U.S. rights to Enablex from Novartis for $400 million in cash.
We advised Comcast in its negotiation of a patent portfolio cross-license with Verizon.
We advised Comcast in its acquisition of a license to Gemstar’s patent portfolio, in connection with a $250 million investment in a joint venture for the development of next-generation IPG technology.
We are advising Form Factor on its patent enforcement strategy against infringing global competitors.
We advised (and continue to advise) Comcast in its evaluation and negotiation of patent licenses from various major patent aggregators.
We regularly advise Golf Channel, Versus, Comcast SportsNet, G4 and E!, among others, in connection with various programming matters.
We advised Comcast and its affiliates in connection with various matters relating to the development and licensing of certain technologies necessary to facilitate the analog-to-digital conversion, as well as other conditional access technologies utilized in the cable television industry.
We advised Bertelsmann in connection with the sale of its 50% interest in the world’s second-largest record label, SonyBMG, to Sony and Bertelsmann’s acquisition of selected European music catalog assets from SonyBMG.
We advised Novo Nordisk in connection with various technology transactions including its acquisition of certain intellectual property rights from Neose Technologies relating to the discovery, research, development and commercialization of compounds and products for use in the prevention or treatment of acquired or hereditary hemorrhagic disorders and the restructuring of its relationships with certain of its research and development partners, following its decision to exit the oncology area.
We advised Comcast in connection with its $1.05 billion investment in Clearwire, a company resulting from the combination of the high-speed wireless businesses of Sprint, Nextel and Clearwire and which is focused on expediting the deployment of the first nationwide mobile WiMAX network. We also advised Comcast on a subsequent $196 million additional investment in the company.
We advised Harvard University on its agreement with Google allowing Google to digitally index certain book collections of Harvard’s library and make them full-text searchable via free online access.
We advised Syngenta in connection with various technology transactions including its crop technology exchange agreement with DuPont relating to certain insect control products and its collaboration with Diversa to establish a shared biotechnology research platform for new plant science applications in various areas including in the biofuel field.

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Areas of Experience

Investment Funds Litigation and Investigations

Transactions

Transactions and Strategy

Litigation