William P. Atkins
Partner

Mr. Atkins is the leader of Pillsbury’s Intellectual Property Litigation team. He is a trial and appellate lawyer with 20 years of experience. He is a registered patent attorney who personally handles all of his cases and has won jury verdicts on both sides of the courtroom. Recent victories include (1) getting two university co-inventors added onto two NIH cancer drug patents with annual sales of approximately $2B, (2) an infringement jury verdict for a consumer product against a major competitor, and (3) a jury verdict for a client in defense of $200M+ patent infringement and related allegations. He takes pride in developing and obtaining the very best solution for each client's situation. Mr. Atkins has been lead counsel in nearly 100 intellectual property litigations and has extensive experience in patent, trademark, trade secret, Lanham Act, unfair competition and copyright matters. Over the course of his career, Mr. Atkins has been in trial and appellate courts, the International Trade Commission or ITC, arbitrations, mediations, and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Examples of his previous cases include:

• Winning a four year long case getting a University of Kansas professor and research assistant named as co-inventors on two NIH patents claiming the formulation for a multibillion dollar anticancer drug called Velcade. Opponents included NIH licensees Johnson & Johnson, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.
• Mr. Atkins won a three week jury trial for a Swedish client who was sued for over $200M for patent infringement and other related allegations and got it affirmed at the Federal Circuit. He then pursued, won, and collected attorneys fees and costs of over $1.2M. District Court's decision stated "Defendant's counsel could not have achieved a better result for their client," and that his trial team's "time records in this case . . . were all reasonable and reasonably necessary for [the Swedish company] to defend this case."
• A major Chinese competitor sued his U.S. client for patent infringement in D.C. Mr. Atkins convinced his client to countersue in the Eastern District of Virginia (known as the "Rocket Docket"). There, he won a three week jury trial for his client and also won a summary judgment of non-infringement in D.C. for his client.
• Pro bono representation in a first degree murder trial on Eastern Shore of Maryland—circumstantial evidence case.
• At the start of the case, obtained a dismissal of all declaratory judgment claims due to a lack of jurisdiction; this provided the client, an Australian manufacturer, an opportunity to file action as a plaintiff in the jurisdiction of their choice.
• In an ITC 337 action, he got the ITC to dismiss his client as a respondent party even before the client had to answer the complainant/patent holder in which the client was named as a respondent.
• Obtained a favorable jury verdict in a five week patent infringement trial between a tier one OEM auto parts supplier and a competitor.
• In a preliminary injunction case on a trademark, obtained a quick and successful settlement for an accused infringer before even filing a response brief.
• Settled a complicated inventorship and contract case involving an inventor, pharmaceutical drug research company, and a major university shortly after taking over the case.
• Successfully defended a foreign manufacturer of television components in an antidumping case at the ITC by getting the allegation dismissed very early in the case, during the preliminary review by the ITC Commissioners.
• Trial team member on multi-patent infringement trial in which client was awarded over $200 million in damages, and more in follow-on litigation.
• Filed numerous amicus briefs at the Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of such parties as Intel, Microsoft, Medtronic, and Cisco.

Mr. Atkins is the Immediate Past President of the Foundation of the Bar Association of D.C. and has been President of the Bar Association of D.C. (2005-06), a member of the ABA's House of Delegates, and chaired numerous bar committees. He is a prolific writer having recently published a primer on ITC procedure in English, Japanese, and Chinese. The primer was judged as one of the ten best law review articles related to patent law published within the last year by the editor of West's Intellectual Property Law Review (2011). He has also been recently appointed as Co-Editor for BNA’s Patent Litigation Strategies Handbook, for which he has written two chapters.

Mr. Atkins has also been a member of Pillsbury’s Managing Board, co-leader of the firm's IP section, Managing Partner of the Northern Virginia office, and a member of the firm's Compensation Committee.

• Chambers USA, Intellectual Property—Virginia (2007-2012)
• Best Lawyers in America, Litigation – Intellectual Property, Litigation – Patent, Patent Law (2010-2013)
• Legal 500 US, Intellectual Property (2011)
• LexisNexis, AV Preeminent Rated Lawyer (2013)
• Managing Intellectual Property, IP Star (2013)
• Super Lawyers (2011-2013)

Bar Association of the District of Columbia, District of Columbia Bar, Maryland Bar Association, Virginia Bar Association, American Bar Association, Giles S. Rich Inns of Court, The Barrister's Club of Washington, D.C.

U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Federal, District of Columbia, and Armed Forces Circuits; U.S. District Courts for the Districts of Maryland, District of Columbia, the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia, and various other districts; International Trade Commission