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IP Lawyer of the Year Finalist Bob Van Nest on the Rising Stakes in Patent Cases

10/11/2024

As a finalist for the Intellectual Property Lawyer of the Year at this year’s California Legal Awards, Bob Van Nest recently spoke with The Recorder recently about his top achievements of the past year, including his victory for Dexcom in a $1.4 billion patent case.

“I think the proudest professional achievement during the past year was zeroing out a $1.4 billion damages case on behalf of the defendant Dexcom in March in Wilmington,” Van Nest said. “We tried the case all the way through to verdict, and Abbot won zero in damages and lost 90% of the case. The following Monday, Dexcom’s market cap soared.”

Bob also offered advice to attorneys new to the field (“master all the details” and “remember at all times that you’re a trial lawyer first”) and reflected on how the IP practice is changing.

Having defended two billion-dollar cases in the past year, he says the numbers in tech cases are getting bigger and bigger. “The stakes have gotten higher. The numbers have gotten higher. The demands have gotten higher.”

Read more at The Recorder