Christine M. Morgan

Among her trials of note is Centripetal Networks v. Keysight Technologies (ITC 2023) (appeal pending), during which Keysight prevailed after trial with a finding of no violation by the ALJ, which was affirmed by the Commission. The Commission invalidated all three asserted patents and found two of the three patents not infringed. 

Another noteworthy trial is Realtek Semiconductor Corporation v. LSI Corporation, et al. (N.D. Cal. 2014), where Christine presented the sole company witness for Realtek at trial, and the jury awarded $3.8 million based on his testimony. This case resulted in the first U.S. jury verdict to set a reasonable and nondiscriminatory (RAND) royalty rate for declared standard essential patents (SEPs), believed then to be the lowest such rate for a Wi-Fi declared SEP. Christine was also on the trial and appellate teams in Ericsson v. D-Link, et al. (E.D. Tex. 2013), which resulted in the seminal Federal Circuit opinion on RAND damages, Ericsson v. D-Link, 773 F.3d 1201 (Fed. Cir. 2014), and a complete victory for the defendants after appeal and a parallel inter partes review proceeding wiped out the remaining patents.

Christine also specializes in the Section 101 patent defense. She has eliminated tens of millions of dollars in potential damages exposure faced by our clients by invalidating patents under Section 101, often at the pleading stage. Recent victories include MIAX v. Nasdaq, CBM2018-00030, 00032, where Christine argued as lead trial counsel for MIAX, invalidating two Nasdaq electronic trading patents that were asserted against MIAX in parallel district court litigation. Christine also invalidated a patent under Section 101 related to collecting data from bedside machines, converting it, and presenting it on a graphical user interface. She obtained affirmance of that result in University of Florida Research Foundation v. General Electric Co., 916 F.3d 1363 (Fed. Cir. 2019), an opinion that Law360 dubbed one of the Federal Circuit’s “most significant patent rulings since the beginning of 2019.”

Christine’s Section 101 motion to dismiss wins also include invalidating a patent that had survived IPR and that focused on verifying the identity of a user in more than one way over multiple communications mediums in Smart Authentication IP, LLC v. Electronic Arts Inc., 2019 WL 4305556 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 11, 2019). She also invalidated two patents focused on wirelessly outputting data from one device to another that had been asserted in over two dozen cases around the country in Pebble Tide LLC v. Arlo Technologies, Inc., 2020 WL 509183 (D. Del. Jan. 31, 2020). More recently, Christine invalidated two patents relating to hospital bed graphical user interfaces in Allen Medical Systems Inc., et al. v. Mizuho Orthopedic Systems, Inc., Case No. 22-cv-02462-YGR, Dkt. 53 (N.D. Cal. July 5, 2022).

While her practice focuses on patent litigation, Christine also routinely handles trade secret, unfair competition, trademark, copyright, and complex commercial disputes. Her trial experience even extends to criminal matters.

Christine is also deeply committed to the advancement of women and serves as the Chair of Reed Smith’s Women’s Initiative Network in San Francisco.