Drew Woodmansee is head of the Litigation Practice Group in the firm's San Diego office.
He represents clients in patent litigation in federal courts throughout the United States. He has represented clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and telecommunications industries. His past and present clients include General Electric, EchoStar Communications/DISH Network, Dexcom, Inc., Sandoz, Inc., Charter Communications, Palm, Inc., and Kyocera.
He has tried patent cases to verdict in both bench and jury trials, and has been involved in patent litigation before the United States International Trade Commission. His patent trial experience includes representing San Diego-based Scantibodies Laboratories in a patent dispute with Nichols Institute Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics. The case involved polyclonal antibodies for diagnostic assays used to detect levels of human parathyroid hormone in kidney dialysis patients. The case involved a series of trials, including one bench trial and two jury trials. The jury delivered a defense verdict, finding that the asserted patent was invalid on three different grounds and that one of the two accused products did not infringe. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held the asserted patent invalid under 35 U.S.C. ยง 102(b).
In addition to his intellectual property practice, Mr. Woodmansee maintains an active pro bono practice, serving as trial and appellate counsel in several high-profile civil rights and First Amendment cases. He represents the plaintiffs in Barnes-Wallace, et al. v. Boy Scouts of America, et al., 551 F.3d 891 (9th Cir.2008), cert. denied, 2010 WL 1740539 (May 3, 2010). In that case, he won two summary judgment rulings in 2003 and 2004 on behalf of his clients, an agnostic couple and a lesbian couple, as well as their Scouting-age boys. The Court ruled that the City of San Diego's free leases of 18 acres in Balboa Park and one acre in Mission Bay Park to the Boy Scouts violate the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution, as well as the No Aid and No Preference Clauses of the California Constitution. In 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that his clients have standing to pursue their claims, and it certified three questions of state law to the California Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear the Boy Scouts' appeal on the standing issue.
He also serves as lead counsel in Fehrenbach v. Department of the Air Force, et al. (D. Idaho), challenging the Air Force's efforts to discharge his client, Lt. Col. Victor J. Fehrenbach, under the law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Mr. Woodmansee also has briefed cases before a number of appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Seventh, Ninth, and Federal Circuits, as well as the California Supreme Court.
Mr. Woodmansee is a Lawyer Representative to the United States District Court for the Southern District of California and past Barrister in the Louis M. Welsh American Inn of Court. Mr. Woodmansee has served as a faculty member for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, and he has lectured on patent law at the University of San Diego Law School. He also sits on the board of directors of the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, San Diego County's largest pro bono legal services provider. He also is a member of the Firm's Diversity Strategy Committee and Pro Bono Committee.
While earning his J.D., Mr. Woodmansee was a Thomas J. White Scholar recipient and Executive Editor of the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy.