Wayne Barsky is a trial lawyer and national co-chair of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher’s Intellectual Property Practice Group, where he focuses on high-stakes, high-profile patent litigation for clients in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries. Barsky’s practice regularly takes him to district courts around the country, as well as to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the International Trade Commission.
In February, Barsky was lead counsel in a five-week trial where a nine-person federal jury unanimously rejected Biogen’s $5.4 billion damages claim and invalidated Biogen’s patent, thus handing Barsky’s clients Merck-Serono and Pfizer a complete victory after eight years of litigation. For nearly five weeks, the parties presented witnesses. After deliberating for a day and a half, the jury found that the Gibson Dunn team met its burden of proving, with clear and convincing evidence, that Biogen’s patent is invalid. Consequently, the jury unanimously invalidated all of the claims and precluded Biogen from obtaining any of the damages it sought.