Desmarais LLP has been named a finalist for the New York Law Journal's 2026 Legal Awards in the Specialty Litigation Department of the Year category for IP Litigation, placing the firm among the top contenders in one of the nation's premier legal markets.
The nomination caps an 12-month stretch in which Desmarais's trial-tested bench delivered results for many of the world's leading technology and life-sciences companies.
Among the highlights: Desmarais secured back-to-back complete jury trial victories on both sides of the "v." over the past year, a defense verdict and a plaintiff verdict just weeks apart.
- On defense: A Massachusetts jury delivered a complete defense verdict for Abiomed Inc., a Johnson & Johnson MedTech company, in Maquet Cardiovascular LLC v. Abiomed, finding no infringement and invalidating the asserted patent claim. Desmarais took over the seven-year-old case just one year before trial and won on the rarely successful reverse doctrine of equivalents, even after conceding that Abiomed's products literally met every claim limitation.
- On the plaintiff's side: The firm secured a complete jury trial victory for Harbour Antibodies BV and Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam against Amgen Inc. and its subsidiary Teneobio Inc. over antibody discovery technology. Following trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, the jury found Amgen and Teneobio willfully infringed U.S. Patent No. 10,906,970, awarded Harbour the full $20.2 million in damages sought, rejected all of the defendants' invalidity defenses, and separately found infringement under the doctrine of equivalents.
Additional wins from the period include:
- Google: Bench trial win dismissing a patent suit with prejudice after the court found intentional fraud.
- Ravgen: Federal Circuit affirmance preserving $429.5 million in damages for Ravgen's prenatal genetic testing patents, plus a $68.2 million final judgment against Natera for literal infringement.
- Cisco: Federal Circuit affirmance eliminating $371 million in patent infringement claims brought by Egenera.
- OPEX Corporation: Federal Circuit affirmance of the firm's ITC trial victory, halting importation of competing warehouse-automation systems.
The winners of the
New York Law Journal's 2026 Legal Awards will be announced September 3, 2026.
