Zach Ruby is a counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Crowell & Moring and a member of the Intellectual Property Group. He litigates fast-paced, high-stakes matters for clients. He has been trial counsel in several major litigations, including the first-ever bench trial on the application of IPR-based estoppel after the Supreme Court’s decision in SAS Institute Inc. v. Iancu, 138 S. Ct. 1348 (2018).
He has practiced before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, various district and state courts, various arbitration panels, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). Mr. Ruby also has experience advising small, entrepreneurial clients regarding various aspects of their businesses, including assessment of their intellectual property portfolios.
Mr. Ruby graduated from Duke University School of Law with a J.D. in 2014 after completing both B.A. and B.S. degrees from the University of Washington, where he graduated magna cum laude. There, Mr. Ruby worked as part of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HITLab), where he engaged in cutting-edge research involving all manner of technology.
Mr. Ruby has been named a “Rising Star” in Intellectual Property by Super Lawyers Magazine for 2020 and 2021.
Representative Matters
Mr. Ruby’s representative matters are as follows, including some from his time working for another prominent law firm in Washington, D.C., prior to joining Crowell & Moring:
- Represented MRSI Systems, LLC in a multi-venue litigation against industry rival Palomar Technologies, Inc. Mr. Ruby served as trial counsel in the first-ever bench trial on the issue of IPR-based estoppel. MRSI won that bench trial and went on to win the case after invalidating the asserted patent by summary judgment.
- Represented Cisco Systems, Inc. in bet-the-company litigation against industry rival Arista Networks before the ITC. Mr. Ruby successfully served as trial counsel for Cisco. Limited Exclusion Orders were issued on behalf of his client.
- Represented a leading consumer electronics company in a trademark investigation involving a flagship product before the ITC. After several successful motions, opposing counsel withdrew its complaint, leading to a complete victory.
- Represented a leading computer technology company in a patent infringement investigation regarding magnetic tape memory for archival storage before the ITC. The parties reached a favorable settlement before trial.
- Represented a leading biomedical/life sciences company in a patent infringement litigation involving DNA probe technology before the District of Delaware. After successful summary judgment motions practice, the asserted patents were invalidated, leading to a complete victory.
- Represented a leading consumer electronics company in a series of appeals before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) regarding several post-grant proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office involving patents for secure communications over the internet. The CAFC ruled in favor of his client and affirmed findings of invalidity for all patents at issue.
Affiliations
Admitted to practice: District of Columbia, New York, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
Professional Activities and Memberships
- International Trade Commission Trial Lawyers Association
Publications
Media Mentions
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