Torborg, David S.

Louis Tompros is a partner in the firm's Litigation/Controversy Department, and a member of the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group. Mr. Tompros is also a member of the firm's Boston Hiring Committee. He joined the firm in 2004.

Practice

Mr. Tompros's practice focuses on intellectual property matters at the trial and appellate levels. He has represented clients in patent disputes involving a variety of technologies, including semiconductors, alternative energy, biomaterials, blood and bone marrow treatments, mobile communications, power converters, networking, digital imaging, magnetic braking systems, video compression, mobile multimedia, hard drive testing and plastic storage devices. He has also represented companies in design patent, trademark, trade dress, unfair competition, trade secret, contract, antitrust and products liability matters. His practice has encompassed all facets of litigation, including discovery, settlement, alternative dispute resolution, trials, injunction proceedings and appeals. His trial experience includes bench and jury trials in federal and state courts, and before administrative agencies including the International Trade Commission, and his appellate experience includes oral argument before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Recent highlights include:

• Successfully argued In re Klein analogous art appeal before the Federal Circuit, resulting in precedential opinion reversing decision of Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, in what commentators have called a “major win“ and a “breakthrough for arguments as to non-analogous art”
• Obtained jury verdict in favor of plaintiff as first chair trial counsel in Winsom v. NCAAA
• Obtained favorable settlement as lead counsel in multi-defendant patent litigation in Eastern District of Texas
• Briefed and presented technology tutorial in nine-patent case, resulting in favorable Markman ruling, and successfully argued motion to exclude prior art reference
• Briefed analysis of waiver of patent rights by conduct before standard-setting organizations, adopted in landmark Federal Circuit opinion
• Took relevant depositions, prepared key cross examination and conducted post-trial investigation that uncovered opposing party’s electronic discovery litigation misconduct, resulting in award of more than $8.5 million in attorneys’ fees in well-publicized patent litigation
• Developed and briefed to district court analysis of admissibility of evidence of absence of opinion of counsel post-Seagate under induced infringement theory, ultimately adopted by Federal Circuit
• Second-chaired patent infringement jury trial in Massachusetts district court

Pro bono representation is also an important part of Mr. Tompros's practice. Through the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, he represented an artist whose artwork had been damaged on loan to a museum. In conjunction with Greater Boston Legal Services, he has represented terminated employees in unemployment insurance claims and appeals. Mr. Tompros also represented a group of gay and lesbian service members challenging the constitutionality of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, in association with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

While attending Harvard Law School, Mr. Tompros served as a research assistant to Professor Alan M. Dershowitz and Professor Charles R. Nesson. He was Supreme Court Chair of the Harvard Law Review and a member of the winning team in the Ames Moot Court Competition.

Mr. Tompros is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and before the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

Professional Activities

Mr. Tompros has been a guest lecturer at the Harvard Law School on the topics of discovery and civil procedure, and at the Harvard Business School on the topics of intellectual property, non-disclosure agreements and non-competition agreements. Mr. Tompros was also an invited guest panelist at a plenary session of the American Intellectual Property Institute, focusing on the direction of the Federal Circuit. He has delivered educational presentations on subject-matter patentability, the availability of permanent injunctions in patent infringement matters, the management of document collection and production in large cases and the practical application of the attorney-client privilege.

Mr. Tompros coached the Harvard Law School team that won the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s 2011 national Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition. He has also been an invited practitioner participant in the Harvard Law School First Year Problem Solving Workshop.

As a member of the WilmerHale Privilege Standing Committee, he has spoken on the scope and applicability of the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrines. He has also served on the American Intellectual Property Law Association's Trademark Litigation Committee and has contributed material to the AIPLA Trademark/Trade Dress Update. Mr. Tompros is a named inventor of US Patent Application No. 12/292,189.

Community Involvement

Mr. Tompros serves as a Warden of St. John's Episcopal Church in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and has served as a member of the Charlestown Neighborhood Watch Coalition. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Tompros served as a summer program coordinator for Jumpstart for Young Children, where he oversaw the operation of a community Head Start center in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

Publications

• Louis W. Tompros and Jimmy T. Doan, "Federal Circuit vs. Regional Circuit Law: How Does the Federal Circuit Decide When Its Own Law Applies?," AIPLA (January 2012) (discussing choice of law in Federal Circuit patent appeals)
• The Privilege Report (2005-2007) (monthly report on development in the law of attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine).
• Brent J. Gurney et al., "Stemming the 'Assault' on Privileges: Confidentiality Agreements, Disclosing Facts May Be the Answer," New England In-House, July 2006, at 23 (contributor).
• Louis W. Tompros and Mark G. Matuschak, "US Supreme Court Removes Confusion from Trademark Fair-Use Analysis," (Feb. 9, 2005) (discussing significance of US Supreme Court decision in KP Permanent Make-Up, Inc. v. Lasting Impression I, Inc.).
• AIPLA Trademark Litigation Committee, Quarterly Trademark/Trade Dress Update (2004-2005) (contributor).
• Louis Tompros, Note, "Badwill," 116 Harv. L. Rev. 1845 (2003) (evaluating the existing trademark registration regime's ability to reflect consumer "badwill" toward specific products and services).