Indy Mukerji and Steve Marshall’s commentary was included in a Law.com article analyzing how law firms are beefing up their intellectual property practices as they see opportunity in the practice both domestically and abroad.
"I think one thing that's happened in the industry is there's been a commoditization of patent litigation, meaning that there are a lot of firms who have jumped in and joined the practice," Indy told Law.com. "But what's missing is the ability to handle complex cases, and that's something that only a handful of firms in the country can do, including Covington."
Steve added that many IP practices are now looking overseas. "Patent litigation, which I think for a very long time was very centered in the U.S., is now being internationalized," he said. "I think what we'll see is more collaboration between U.S. law firms and European law firms as a result."
Indy and Steve also discussed how high-stakes, high-impact patent litigation with cases that tend to revolve around electrical products, computer software products, or pharmaceuticals may help make high-end IP litigation more billing rate-resistant than other practices. "I don't know that any practice is rate-resistant, but I think the question really comes in value. When you look at where rates were when I started, the increase has been substantial," Indy said. "But I think it comes down to a question of value, and because the IP cases are so mission-critical, the value is what drives the clients' willingness to pay for counsel, and the rates kind of fall away in that regard."
The partners also said that they anticipate working on many big-ticket patent litigation cases for "household name" tech companies at Covington.
Back
