Overview
Amanda Hollis is an intellectual property litigator and partner in Kirkland’s Chicago office. Amanda has tried and led patent cases in federal courts across the country and in the United States International Trade Commission. She also has served as lead counsel in many inter partes reviews before the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Her practice includes all areas of technology, including biotechnology, medical devices, chemistry, computing and electronics, and her clients have included some of the nation’s largest companies, such as Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, Baxter, Teva, C.R. Bard, IBM, Samsung and Cisco, among others.
Amanda has a track record of obtaining successful results for her clients. Recently, after taking over for another law firm, Amanda successfully led the defense for a large diagnostics company in a patent infringement and breach of contract suit. A California federal jury issued a verdict of non-infringement, a complete victory for Amanda’s client. In another complete victory, Amanda won a case for multinational medical device leaders in which their longtime business competitor claimed infringement of patents on stent graft devices used to treat damaged or blocked blood vessels. A Delaware federal jury concluded that Amanda’s client’s devices did not infringe and that the patent was invalid, including for improper inventorship, a defense that is rarely successfully pursued in patent trials. In another case in which hundreds of millions of dollars were potentially at stake, Amanda won summary judgment that all of the asserted patent claims were invalid. Meanwhile, other companies represented by other lawyers settled by paying the patent holder tens of millions of dollars. Amanda also served as lead counsel for one of the world’s largest biopharmaceutical companies in its high stakes inter partes review challenges to patents held out as protecting HERCEPTIN®, one of the best-selling drugs in the world. The case settled after Amanda succeeded in invalidating all claims of two of the challenged patents.
Amanda has been recognized by Chambers USA in the area of Intellectual Property, with comments that she “is a talented lead patent litigator who is well-regarded by judges and juries alike. She listens to her clients and works tirelessly and efficiently to meet their needs." Amanda has also been named to Benchmark Litigation’s 2016–2019 “Under 40 Hot List,” Law360’s 2018 “Top Attorneys Under 40” for Intellectual Property, and Best Lawyers 2017 “Women of Influence” list. Amanda also was recognized for Patent Litigation in The Legal 500 U.S., 2017–2022 and was recommended in the 2020–2023 editions of the IAM Patent 1000 - The World’s Leading Patent Professionals.
Along with representatives from Duff & Phelps, Archer Daniels Midland, Northwestern University and others, Amanda is a co-founder of Big Careers Little Kids (BCLK), a group connecting Chicagoland’s elite female professionals in the fields of law, finance and business.
Experience
Representative Matters
In the Matter of Certain Non-invasive Aesthetic Body-contouring Devices, Components Thereof, and Methods Using Same (USITC): Lead Counsel representing a pharmaceutical company and its affiliates in a Section 337 investigation involving patents related to abdomen sculpting. The investigation was terminated in light of a settlement agreement.
Abbott Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., et al. v. Edwards Lifesciences: Represented the plaintiffs in this global litigation involving medical devices for the treatment of life threatening heart problems. Before this case reached a settlement, Amanda won key claim construction arguments in federal court and won denials of all five of her opponent’s inter partes review challenges to her client’s patents at the USPTO at the earliest and most difficult stage for such proceedings. At the time petitions like these were allowed to proceed to later stages more than 60% of the time on average, making Kirkland’s early, five-out-of-five victory a rare achievement.
In a case where her opponent was seeking what could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, Amanda achieved a total victory for Abbott Laboratories. In this long and hard-fought patent infringement case brought by Enzo Life Sciences in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Enzo accused hundreds of Abbott’s products of willful patent infringement, and sought both damages and a court order halting Abbott’s sales. The court concluded that Enzo’s patents were invalid. As a result, all of Enzo’s claims against Abbott were dismissed without the expense of a trial. Meanwhile, other companies represented by other lawyers settled by paying Enzo tens of millions of dollars so they wouldn’t face more litigation and damages exposure. Amanda was Abbott’s lead trial lawyer and argued the case.
Represented Alere subsidiary Innovacon in this breach of contract and patent litigation brought by Rembrandt Diagnostics in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California relating to drugs of abuse test devices. Rembrandt accused Innovacon of selling multiple products that infringe licensed patents and sought years of royalty damages. After taking this case over from another law firm, Amanda won a key Markman decision interpreting the asserted patent claims favorably for Innovacon. Amanda also got the other side to give up its claims against several of her client’s products. Amanda then won a jury verdict of noninfringement on all remaining claims, completing the victory for her client.
Represented C.R. Bard and Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. in litigation brought by Bard’s longtime business competitor and litigation adversary W.L. Gore in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging the infringement of three patents on thin-wall stent grafts. Obtained a complete defense verdict for Bard on Gore’s claims of willful infringement. The jury delivered a verdict that Gore’s patent claims were not infringed by either of Bard’s FLUENCY® PLUS and FLAIR® stent graft products and were also invalid on three separate grounds (anticipation, obviousness, and incorrect inventorship). Prior to trial, uncovered and used documents not previously produced by the other side in discovery to show it was not entitled to certain lost profits type damages, knocking out more than $100 million of damages exposure.
Represented Teva Pharmaceutical subsidiary Actavis in this brand-generic pharmaceutical patent litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey before Chief Judge Jose Linares. Valeant accused Actavis’s proposal to market a generic version of Carac® cream for the treatment of certain pre-cancerous and cancerous skin growths of infringing seventeen claims of a United States patent. After taking this case over from another firm, Amanda argued at the Markman hearing that all of the patent claims should be immediately invalidated without the expense of summary judgment proceedings or a trial on two independent grounds. The case subsequently settled on confidential terms.
Represented C.R. Bard, Davol and Medafor against CryoLife in a high-stakes declaratory judgment patent infringement action filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. CryoLife filed a complaint for declaratory judgment stating that CryoLife’s PerClot® product does not infringe Medafor’s patent for a chemical compound to put in a wound to enhance clotting in a variety of surgical procedures and seeking to invalidate Medafor’s patent. Obtained dismissal of Bard and Davol on jurisdictional grounds and won a rare preliminary injunction barring sales of CryoLife’s competitive PerClot® blood-clotting product. CryoLife appealed the preliminary injunction ruling. CryoLife then dropped its appeal and dropped its case entirely.
Represented Biscotti, Inc. in multiple IPR challenges to its patent relating to videoconferencing technology brought by Microsoft In. Succeeded in defeating all of the challenges to dozens of Biscotti’s claims without making any claim amendments. As a result of the victory, client may be among the first patent owner to go to trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on its patent infringement claims where the other party was precluded under 35 U.S.C. § 315 from challenging the validity of the asserted patent on certain grounds.
Represented Aker BioMarine in a significant inter partes review of U.S. Patent No. 8,278,351 against patent owner and competitor Neptune Technologies & Bioresources. Obtained a decision that 26 claims were unpatentable.
Represented C.R. Bard against LifeScreen Sciences, LLC and LifePort Sciences, LLC. LifeScreen accused Bard of infringing three patents for filters that are inserted into blood vessels to aid in catching clots and in a separate case LifePort accused Bard of infringing a patent relating to stent grafts for blood vessels. After obtaining a favorable ruling after a Markman hearing, convinced LifeScreen to drop one patent entirely, which claimed two Bard products infringed and drop infringement claims on one of two products accused of infringing a second patent. After pressure to drop the remaining patents from the case, the parties entered settlement and both cases were dismissed.
Represented Aker BioMarine in several patent infringement actions in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the International Trade Commission (ITC) involving Superba™ krill oil. Settled all actions favorably for Aker BioMarine shortly before trial.
Represented ConvergEx in the Realtime Data LLC patent infringement litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Four months before trial, plaintiff gave up and dismissed its case against client with prejudice for no money. Other defendants remained in the case and faced demands for hundreds of millions of dollars on claims headed to trial.
Represented Bank of America in patent infringement litigation brought by Every Penny Counts in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida involving the Bank’s Keep the Change® program. Won summary judgment that the asserted patent was invalid for lack of patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101.
Represented Cisco Systems, Motorola Solutions, and others in complex and highly publicized multi-district litigation brought by Innovatio IP Ventures concerning patents alleged to be essential to IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) technology.
Represented IBM in patent infringement litigation brought in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims by UShip involving an Automated Postal Center used throughout the United States Postal System. UShip dropped five of its asserted patents during claim construction and, after claim construction, the remaining asserted patents were declared invalid as indefinite and not infringed.
Represented Yahoo! in patent infringement litigation brought by non-practicing entity in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland involving SMS and Internet messaging. Won summary judgment of non-infringement.
Represented Spectrum Pharmaceuticals in ANDA litigation brought by Glaxo Group Limited in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware involving blockbuster migraine drug Imitrex®. Case settled favorably for Spectrum days before trial was scheduled to begin.
Represented Roxane Laboratories in ANDA litigation brought by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio involving PhosLo®, a drug for the control of hyperphosphatemia in end stage renal failure. Case settled favorably for Roxane Laboratories after Markman hearing.
Represented Roxane Laboratories in ANDA litigation brought by Abbott Laboratories in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois involving antibiotic BIAXIN®. Case settled favorably for Roxane shortly after summary judgment motion was filed.
Represented Abbott in its $5.8 billion acquisition of Alere Inc.
Represented Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Limited in its $6.8 billion acquisition of Cephalon, Inc.
Prior Experience
Latham & Watkins, LLP
More
Thought Leadership
Press Mentions
"FDA's Eva Temkin Discusses Biosimilar Approvals at ACI," AJMC The Center for Biosimilars, September 23, 2020
"Genentech Defends Herceptin Dosing Patents Before PTAB," Law360, May 8, 2018
"PTAB Reverses Course, Institutes Review Of Herceptin Patent," Law360, October 30, 2017
"WL Gore Can't Recover Lost Profits In Stent IP Row: Judge," Law360, July 29, 2016
“The 2016 IP Hot List: Kirkland & Ellis,” The National Law Journal, June 6, 2016
“Texas Company Beats Microsoft at the 'Death Squad,’ ” Texas Lawyer, March 28, 2016
"Kirkland & Ellis," The National Law Journal, February 29, 2016
"2015 Practice Group of the Year: Intellectual Property," Law360, February 1, 2016
"Microsoft Corporation v. Biscotti Inc.: Decision Denying Request for Rehearing IPR2014-01457," The National Law Review, July 5, 2015
"Judge Issues Rare Injunction In CR Bard Unit's Patent Case," Law360, March 11, 2015
Seminars
Presenter, along with Pfizer’s Global Biosimilars Lead and Sandoz’s Executive Director, Scientific Affairs: Biosimilars Virtual Conference, The Challenges & Opportunities for Biosimilars in the US
Presenter, along with Fresenius Medical Care’s Vice President, Associate General Counsel, Global Intellectual Property, GSK’s Vice President, Global Patent Litigation Governance, Head of Patents, and Bayer’s Senior Counsel: LESI 2018 Annual Conference, Doing Major Life Sciences Deals: The Keys To Success
Speaker at Practicing Law Institute Conference: Litigation Issues in Intellectual Property Licensing
Recognition
Recognized for "500 Leading Litigators in America," by Lawdragon, 2024
Recognized for Intellectual Property by Chambers USA, 2021–2024
Recognized for Patent Litigation: Full Coverage [Next Generation, 2020] by The Legal 500 U.S., 2017–2022
Recommended in IAM Patent 1000, 2020–2023
Shortlisted for Life Sciences in Euromoney Legal Media Group's Americas Rising Star Awards, 2019
Recognized for Intellectual Property in the “Top Attorneys Under 40” list of Law360, 2018
Nominated in the "Women of Influence" list of Best Lawyers, 2017
Recognized in the "Under 40 Hotlist" of Benchmark Litigation, 2016–2019
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- 2003, Illinois
- Registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office
Courts
- Supreme Court of Illinois
- United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
- United States District Court for the District of Delaware
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
- United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
- United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
- United States District Court for the District of Maryland
- United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- United States International Trade Commission
- United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board
Education
- University of North Carolina School of LawJ.D.with Honors2003
Editor, North Carolina Law Review
Gressman-Pollitt Award for Outstanding Oral Advocacy
- University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignB.S., Biologycum laude2000
Minor in Chemistry
Member, Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society
James Scholar
Cross-country, Track