Louis W. Tompros’s practice focuses on patent, trademark and copyright matters at the trial and appellate levels. He has tried multiple intellectual property cases to verdict as lead trial counsel, and has argued multiple appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
He has represented clients in patent disputes involving a variety of technologies, including smartphones, semiconductors, networking, alternative energy, DNA testing, power converters, data encryption, video compression, personal watercrafts and plastic storage devices. He has represented clients in copyright infringement disputes, including visual artists, authors and publishers.
He has also represented clients in trademark, trade dress, unfair competition, trade secret and design patent matters. His practice has encompassed all facets of litigation, including discovery, settlement, alternative dispute resolution, trials, injunction proceedings and appeals. His trial work includes bench and jury trials in federal and state courts and administrative agencies.
Mr. Tompros also serves as a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School, where he teaches Patent Trial advocacy. Pro bono representation is also an important part of Mr. Tompros’s practice. He represents the creator of the Pepe the Frog character in his high-profile copyright enforcement actions against alt-right entities.
Through the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, he represented an artist whose artwork had been damaged on loan to a museum, a disability rights author and advocate in a copyright dispute with her publisher, and a prominent literary journal in a copyright dispute with an electronic database service.
He has also represented local Boston educational institutions, including the Charlestown Nursery School and the Learning Project Elementary School. He has represented terminated employees in unemployment insurance claims and appeals, public housing tenants facing eviction, and public advocacy groups submitting amicus briefs on criminal defense and privacy issues.
Mr. Tompros also represented a group of gay and lesbian service members in one of the first challenges to 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 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 the Chair of the Equal Justice Coalition of Massachusetts, a collaboration between the Massachusetts Bar Association, Boston Bar Association, and Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation committed to ensuring access to civil legal aid for low-income residents of Massachusetts.
In addition, Mr. Tompros serves on the board of trustees of The Learning Project Elementary School and has served as a warden of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Charlestown, Massachusetts. 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.
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 and a frequent judge of the Harvard Law School Ames Moot Court Competition.
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.
Experience :
- Obtained jury verdict of noninfringement as lead counsel for defendant Bombardier Recreational Products in $130 million trademark trial over Jaguar Land Rover’s “Defender” trademark, resulting in recognition by The American Lawyer
- Obtained summary judgment as lead counsel for personal watercraft manufacturer in patent marking dispute
- Obtained final written determination of noninfringement for major semiconductor manufacturer in International Trade Commission patent infringement investigation
- Obtained admission of infringement and disgorgement of profits from infringer of Pepe the Frog copyright, as lead counsel in high-profile action against author of controversial children’s book
- Obtained two significant victories for owner of wind turbine patents in two separate Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions reversing the examiner’s rejections in inter partes reexaminations and confirming the patentability of disputed claims
- Obtained injunction against competitor in patent infringement case following jury trial and favorable Markman ruling, and defended infringement judgment and injunction against challenge on appeal
- 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.
EDUCATION :
- JD, Harvard Law School, 2003
- BA, English Language and Literature, Yale University, 2000
ADMISSIONS : Massachusetts
CLERKSHIPS :
- The Hon. Richard Linn, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 2008 – 2009
- The Hon. Robert J. Cordy, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 2003 – 2004
Cost
Rate : $$$
