Mel Bostwick

Mel Bostwick is a partner of the firm's Supreme Court and Appellate practice. Her practice focuses on high-stakes appeals, with a particular emphasis on patent appeals before the Federal Circuit.

• Engagements

  • Lead counsel to a major tech company in seeking reversal of an ITC decision to exclude one of the company's products from importation on the grounds that they infringe two patents held by another company.
  • Lead counsel to a major tech company in defending its win on summary judgment of noninfringement in a suit involving a contactless payment patent.
  • Rex Medical LP v. Intuitive Surgical Inc., et al. (Fed Cir. No. 24-1072): Lead counsel to Intuitive Surgical in defending patent damages win while challenging liability verdict in cross-appeal.
  • Bufkin v. McDonough (S. Ct. No 23-713): Lead counsel to petitioners in merits case concerning the standard of judicial review applied in veterans’ benefits cases. The case will be argued in the Supreme Court’s upcoming Term.
    
  • Broadcom Corp. v. Netflix Inc. (N.D. Cal. No. 20-4677): Lead appellate counsel to Netflix in high-profile patent fight relating to the computing technology that powers video streaming services. Trial set for January 2025.
  • George v. McDonough (S. Ct. No. 21-234): Argued on behalf of disabled veteran who was denied benefits based on an agency regulation that contradicted an unambiguous governing statute.
  • Procopio v. Wilkie (Fed. Cir. No. 17-1821) (en banc): Successfully argued pro bono en banc case on behalf of "Blue Water Navy" veterans, securing a 9-2 ruling that the Agent Orange Act unambiguously grants these veterans a presumption of exposure and service-connection based on having "served in the Republic of Vietnam."
  • Represent leading tech company in a series of Federal Circuit mandamus matters, including securing multiple orders directing transfer of patent litigation.
  • Juno Therapeutics, Inc. v. Kite Pharma, Inc. (Fed. Cir. No. 20-1758): Represented Gilead subsidiary Kite in successfully overturning $1.2B infringement verdict involving Kite's lifesaving cancer therapy.
  • Nite Glow Industries Inc. v. Central Garden & Pet Co. (Fed. Cir. No. 20-1897): Successfully argued on behalf of Central in a case involving pet medicine applicators, securing new damages trial on trade secret claim and affirmance of victory on patent infringement claim.
  • Cellspin Soft, Inc. v. Panasonic Corp. (Fed. Cir. No. 20-1948): Successfully argued on behalf of Panasonic and other digital camera manufacturers and obtained summary affirmance of PTAB's decision holding challenged patent obvious.
  • SecureWave Storage Solutions v. global semiconductor manufacturing company (Fed. Cir. No. 20-2244): Successfully argued on behalf of global semiconductor manufacturing company and obtained summary affirmance of PTAB's decision holding challenged patent obvious.
  • Flamm v. global semiconductor manufacturing company (Fed. Cir. No. 18-2322): Successfully argued on behalf of global semiconductor manufacturing company and other semiconductor manufacturers and obtained summary affirmance of PTAB's decision holding challenged patent obvious on multiple grounds.
  • Innovative Memory Systems, Inc. v. global semiconductor manufacturing company (Fed. Cir. No. 18-1348): Successfully argued on behalf of global semiconductor manufacturing company and obtained affirmance of PTAB’s invalidation of all challenged claims in a patent related to analog-to-digital converters.
  • PurePredictive, Inc. v. H2O.ai, Inc. (Fed. Cir. No. 17-2544): Successfully argued on behalf of artificial intelligence innovator H2O.ai and obtained summary affirmance of Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal of patent infringement suit based on ineligibility of asserted claims under Section 101.
  • Saunders v. Wilkie (Fed. Cir. No. 17-1466): Successfully argued pro bono on behalf of a Gulf War veteran and obtained a unanimous precedential decision undoing a longstanding VA rule that improperly denied benefits to veterans with disabling pain linked to their military service solely because a doctor could not identify a present diagnosable disease or condition associated with the pain.
  • Sweeting v. MSPB (Fed. Cir. No. 16-2540): Argued pro bono on behalf of a Vietnam veteran challenging his post-service discharge from federal employment and the Merit Systems Protection Board’s application of res judicata to his claim of newly discovered evidence.
  • Shine v. Williams-Sonoma (Cal. Ct. App. No. B277513): Successfully argued for affirmance of the trial court’s judgment sustaining Williams-Sonoma’s demurrer, on res judicata grounds, to a putative class action wage claim filed by a former employee.
  • Boom! Payments, Inc. v. Stripe, Inc. (Fed. Cir. No. 20-1274): Successfully represented Stripe in defending dismissal under Section 101 of patent claims challenging Stripe's innovative payment-processing technology.
  • The Chamberlain Group, Inc. v. Techtronic Industries Co. (S. Ct. 19-1299): Represented Chamberlain in seeking certiorari review of Federal Circuit's ruling that patent claims to an innovative garage door-opener are ineligible as "abstract."
  • Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. v. 10x Genomics Inc. (Fed. Cir. No. 19-2255): Represented 10x in appeal from infringement verdict involving 10x’s groundbreaking microfluidics platform.
  • The Chamberlain Group v. ITC (Fed. Cir. No. 22-1644): Represented Chamberlain in an ITC appeal involving garage-door openers and related patents, which led to a settlement after the oral argument.
  • Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi (S. Ct. 21-757): Filed amicus brief on behalf of leading biopharmaceutical companies in the first Supreme Court case to address Section 112(a) in the modern era