Nicole Smith is an accomplished trial lawyer in the firm’s Intellectual Property Group, and co-chair of Morrison & Foerster’s E-Discovery Task Force. When faced with high-stakes intellectual property disputes, clients appreciate Ms. Smith’s ability to master their technologies and products quickly, as well as her particular talent in explaining those technologies in clear and compelling oral arguments to judges and juries. Ms. Smith’s significant trial and litigation experience encompasses patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and related intellectual property matters. She has also tried multiple criminal cases to favorable verdicts with the Los Angeles City Attorneys’ Office.
Ms. Smith’s clients come from a broad range of industries, including semiconductors, software, media and entertainment (video compression, video editing and DVD/Blu-ray technologies), video games, consumer electronics, and medical devices. Her court victories have included representation of large corporations, as well as single inventors. She has been successfully trying and litigating cases for almost 20 years for clients such as C. R. Bard, Verizon Wireless, Mitsubishi, and MPAA member movie studios.
In a trial against Microsoft, Amado v. Microsoft Corporation (C.D. Cal.), Ms. Smith spearheaded the damages portion of the case on behalf of Armando Amado, an inventor from Guatemala who alleged that the software giant had infringed his patents on spreadsheet software he designed. Following a jury verdict of infringement, Mr. Amado was awarded $6.1 million, which was affirmed on appeal. After a second appeal relating to post-verdict sales, Mr. Amado’s total award increased to $16 million. Ms. Smith also was a key member of the trial team representing Anaheim-based Odetics, Inc. in a patent infringement suit against StorageTek Corporation. The trial team won a $70 million verdict, and after prevailing on appeal, settled the case for $100 million.
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