H. Mark Lyon is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Intellectual Property and Media and Entertainment Practice Groups, resident in the Palo Alto office.

Mr. Lyon's practice is focused primarily on litigation, licensing and counseling in matters involving patent rights, copyrights, and trade secrets. He has been lead trial and appellate counsel in disputes through all phases of litigation and covering a broad array of technologies.

Mr. Lyon is a frequent author and lecturer on matters relating to intellectual property litigation, particularly those involving patent litigation in the federal courts and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Recently, he was named one of the top IP Litigators by the Daily Journal for his handling of significant patent litigation matters.

Mr. Lyon has successfully represented clients in patent and trade secret disputes ranging from matters involving optical and wireless telecommunications, integrated circuit and LCD design and manufacturing, computer software and networking, medical devices, and numerous other technologies. He also has significant experience litigating matters before the ITC, as well as key “patent” courts such as the Northern and Central Districts of California, the Eastern District of Texas, the Eastern District of Virginia, and the District of Delaware.

Other exemplary matters handled by Mr. Lyon include:

Sharp v. AUO

Lead counsel in ITC and district courts in a number of patent litigation matters relating to LCD television and display technologies. Cases resulted in early favorable settlement for client.

IP Innovations v. Red Hat & Novell

Trial counsel for Red Hat and Novell. Developed and lead defense of a patent case tried in the Eastern District of Texas, in which patent claims were asserted by an Acacia subsidiary against open source Linux operating system technologies. After a one-week trial, the jury returned a complete defense verdict (rare for E.D. Tex.), finding all asserted claims not infringed, invalid and unenforceable.

Tessera Technologies ITC Litigation

Trial counsel for Tessera Technologies in Section 337 Investigation in which Tessera brought complaints against various semiconductor and cell phone manufacturers. The Commission handed Tessera a sweeping victory, finding that all of the respondents were in violation of Section 337, upholding the validity of the patents in suit, and entering both a limited exclusion order as well as cease and desist orders against the respondents.

Nortel Networks v. Ciena/ONI

Lead counsel for GD&C in a combined patent/trade secret matter involving SONET, SDH and DWDM optical Metro and Carrier telecommunications technologies. Nortel Networks alleged infringement of multiple patent families by ONI, which was acquired by Ciena during the course of the litigation, as well as the misappropriation of trade secrets in numerous technical areas. After a series of favorable rulings on both the patent and trade secret causes of action, the case settled very favorably for Nortel Networks less than two weeks before the jury trial was set to commence.

Resonate v. Nortel Networks

Lead counsel for Nortel Networks in a matter involving a patent directed to particular methods of internet server load-balancing. Obtained summary judgment of non-infringement in favor of Nortel Networks, which was subsequently affirmed on appeal.

Etec Systems v. Micronic Laser Systems

Counsel for Micronic Laser Systems in a case involving a patent directed to particular types of machines that utilize lasers to manufacture semiconductor masks. After Mr. Lyon obtained a favorable claim construction, the case settled favorably our client.

Harris v. Macronix

Counsel for Macronix in a patent case brought in the Eastern District of Virginia involving a number of Flash and EPROM and EEPROM semiconductor memory products. After we aggressively pursued summary judgment on all patents, the case settled favorably for our client.

Abovehealth v. Hewlett – Packard

Lead trial counsel for Hewlett-Packard against claims of copyright infringement and unfair competition. The case settled favorably for our client after temporary injunction relief was denied.

Guidant/ St. Jude Medical Litigation

Trial counsel for St. Jude Medical in a series of patent litigation matters in Indiana, Delaware, and Minnesota with regard to various types of implantable cardiac stimulation devices through trial and a number of appeals. Successfully invalidated a number of the patents asserted against our client, both before and after trial, resulting in favorable settlements in all cases on all asserted patents save one. Issues surrounding the one remaining patent, which has long ago expired, remain on appeal pending en banc review by the Federal Circuit next month.

Medtronic Stent Litigation

Represented Medtronic as appellate and trial counsel in a series of litigation and arbitration matters relating to patents directed to bare-metal and drug-eluting stent design and operation.

In addition to being admitted to practice in a number of district and appellate courts, Mr. Lyon is registered to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office.

Mr. Lyon obtained his J.D., summa cum laude, from Santa Clara University and holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Michigan State University. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Mr. Lyon worked at Lockheed Missiles & Space Systems, Inc., in the Space Systems and Astronautics Divisions, performing engineering work in the area of systems design and analysis for RF and laser satellite telecommunications, computer, and laser networking and communications.

He is a member of Pi Mu Epsilon (a national mathematics honorary), Eta Kappa Nu (a national electrical engineering honorary), and Alpha Sigma Nu (a national Jesuit honorary). Mr. Lyon is also a member of several intellectual property professional organizations and is vice-chair of the Patent Litigation Committee of the Federal Circuit Bar Association.