Noyes_Christopher

Christopher R. Noyes

Noyes_Christopher

Christopher R. Noyes

Partner

New York + 1 212 295 6823

Chris Noyes is an experienced trial lawyer that advises pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other technology companies on complex intellectual property matters. With more than 18 years of experience, he has helped his clients protect their intellectual property and defend their businesses around the world. 

During his career, Mr. Noyes has successfully litigated patent, trademark, trade secret, license disputes and other intellectual property cases before numerous federal district courts, state courts, appellate courts, and arbitration tribunals. He has extensive experience in Hatch-Waxman litigation, taking numerous cases to trial in the District of Delaware and District of New Jersey. He has also argued appeals before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and litigated patent disputes before the US International Trade Commission. Beyond his domestic practice, Mr. Noyes has experience developing and executing strategies for international litigations. He has experience with courts and agencies throughout Europe.

Mr. Noyes has handled cases involving a variety of technologies, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, medical devices, robotics, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, and consumer products, among others. His intellectual property clients have included Ariosa Diagnostics, Braintree Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, Khosla Ventures, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Procter & Gamble, Roche Diagnostics, Roche Molecular Systems, The Swatch Group, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Earlier in his career Mr. Noyes served as a Commonwealth of Massachusetts Special District Attorney in the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, where he prosecuted various criminal offenses. While at the Middlesex DA’s Office, Mr. Noyes tried a variety of criminal cases to juries and judges.

Mr. Noyes has worked on significant pro bono matters during his career involving voting rights, probation, and police hiring and promotion. 

Professional Activities

Mr. Noyes serves on the advisory board of NYU School of Law's Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy. He has served as a faculty member for the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Pretrial Litigation Basics Seminar and as an advisor to students participating in the Harvard Law School mock trial program.

Mr. Noyes is a member of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association.

Experience

  • Secured a precedent-setting result for his client, a Swiss luxury watchmaker, when the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a jury verdict finding a commercial landlord liable for contributory trademark infringement of trademarks owned by the luxury watch brand. This precedential decision confirmed that commercial landlords can be held liable if they are willfully blind to trademark infringement by their tenants. Mr. Noyes argued the appeal and was recognized as a runner up in The Am Law Litigation Daily’s Litigator of the Week for his work on this matter.
  • Secured a jury verdict in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, where a jury found a Canal Street landlord liable for willful contributory trademark infringement. The jury awarded his client $1.1 million in statutory damages based on the sale of a single $80 counterfeit watch sold by a tenant of the landlord. Mr. Noyes was recognized as a runner up in The Am Law Litigation Daily’s Litigator of the Week for his work on this matter.
  • Achieved a significant victory on behalf of our clients, multiple medical device and diagnostics companies, when the District of Delaware granted summary judgment invalidating the key patent asserted against our clients. The judge ultimately entered a final judgment as to that patent, stayed the remainder of the claims and closed the cases.
  • Secured a significant victory at the Federal Circuit for Braintree Laboratories, Inc. when the appeals court reversed a district court's grant of summary judgment of noninfringement for Breckenridge Pharmaceutical and remanded with instructions to enter judgment in Braintree's favor. This Hatch-Waxman matter involved a patent owned by Braintree pertaining to its product SUPREP, a highly successful product designed to cleanse the colon safely before a colonoscopy.
  • Obtained a favorable result for our client, a large pharmaceutical company, resolving global litigation with a rival pharmaceutical company related to their competing vaccines. A settlement resolved proceedings in Australia, Ireland, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Patent Office and the USPTO. Mr. Noyes was the lead New York partner for the litigation.
  • Acted as second chair trial and conducted all cross examinations of the defense experts in a remand trial on infringement and obtained a victory for the client when the judge found that the proposed generic product would infringe five asserted claims of our client's patent if marketed and sold. Representation began in 2013 with trial where Mr. Noyes was second chair and was primarily responsible for presenting the case on validity. The Court found that the claims of the patent at issue are invalid for obviousness, anticipation or indefiniteness.

Recognition

  • Recognized as a leading litigator in the 2021–2023 edition of IAM Patent 1000: The World's Leading Patent Practitioners.
  • Recommended in the 2016 edition of The Legal 500 United States for intellectual property: patent litigation: full coverage.
  • Named a "New York Metro Super Lawyer" for intellectual property litigation in the 2013–2021 and 2023 editions of Metro Edition magazine.
  • Named a "New England Super Lawyer" in the 2013 and 2014 issues of Boston Magazine and named a "Rising Star" for intellectual property litigation in the 2012 and 2014 issues of Boston Magazine.
  • Named to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America list.

Insights & News

View all of Christopher's insights & news

Credentials

  • Education

    • JD, University of Michigan Law School, 2002

      cum laude Order of the Coif; Article Editor, Michigan Journal of Race and Law

    • BA, Political Science, University of Vermont, 1999

      summa cum laude Phi Sigma Alpha

  • Admissions

    • New York

    • Massachusetts

  • Clerkships

    • The Hon. Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee, 2000

    • The Hon. Marilyn S. Skoglund, Vermont Supreme Court, 2002 - 2003

Credentials

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