Biography
Anne has a uniquely diverse intellectual property counseling practice, which includes advising clients on pre-litigation patent strategies, technical aspects of patent licensing arrangements, patent acquisitions, and intellectual property due diligence for M&A transactions.
Clients also call on Anne to oversee and lead the most technical aspects of patent litigations, including performing technical analysis to ensure solid claim construction, infringement, and validity arguments; overseeing technical experts and interacting with company engineers; and managing post-grant strategy and proceedings. Anne has extensive experience representing clients in high-stakes multi-patent and multi-district litigations, as well as trade secret actions. She litigates in federal courts and arbitration proceedings, has handled numerous inter partes review and ex partes review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeals Board, and has particularly deep experience before the U.S. International Trade Commission. She also regularly advises major tech companies on broader market strategy, including indemnity analysis, pre-litigation threats, competitive analysis, litigation landscapes, competitive responses, and patent acquisitions.
Anne uses her strong technical background, including a B.S. in electrical engineering with minors in computer science and mathematics and prior work experience as an engineer and consultant for IBM, to advise clients on a diverse range of technology. She has represented smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers in proceedings involving data encoding, memory, multi-touch, WiFi, GPS, data synchronization, 3G/LTE cellular data modulation, and digital camera technologies. She also has represented other technology-focused clients in proceedings involving wireless, integrated circuit design, memory, Ethernet and DSL technology, and semiconductor processing and packaging. Some of Anne’s representative clients include leading smartphone manufacturers, Microsoft, Intel, Amkor, and T-Mobile, among others.
Some of Anne’s representative experience includes:
- Represented GE in an ITC investigation brought against Siemens and several of its subsidiaries relating to GE’s wind turbine technology that resulted in an initial determination finding in GE’s favor and recommended an exclusion order barring importation of all infringing products.
- Currently representing Altria in offensive and defensive cases against Juul at the ITC relating to smokeless e-vapor technology. The litigation includes inter partes review proceedings at the PTAB.
- Successfully represented Intel in a patent litigation case concerning data packet handling. The litigation included numerous inter partes review and two ex partes review proceedings before the Patent Office.
- Representing a leading public technology company in a patent infringement case related to data compression technology. The case is currently on appeal after the patent claim was found invalid in an inter partes review.
- Successfully represented a leading public technology company as the technical lead in three separate consumer class action complaints in California federal court.
- Successfully represented a leading public technology company at the International Trade Commission in an investigation related to standards essential patents (SEPs), mobile application functionalities and underlying software functionality.
- Defended HP in a patent litigation brought by CalTech involving patents directed to error correction codes used in improving WiFi transmission performance.
- Currently representing BBC Studios America and BritBox in patent litigation brought by DISH and Sling related to video streaming technology.
- Successfully represented Samsung in a patent infringement actions at the ITC adverse to InterDigital and Kodak.
- Represented T-Mobile in a patent infringement action involving error correction and encoding for wireless communications, and in a separate patent infringement action related to message transcoding. Patent was found invalid for failing to claim patentable subject matter.
- Represented Maxim in a patent infringement action involving analog circuit designs for power switches.
Anne is widely regarded as a leader in the field. In 2023, she was again named to the Daily Journal’s list of the Top 100 Women Lawyers in California, with the publication noting that “Cappella uses her background as an electrical engineer and a love for complicated technology to help her clients fend off patent infringement claims.” She was also named “Technology Lawyer of the Year” at Euromoney’s 2023 Women in Business Law Awards, and was shortlisted in the national “Best in Patents” category in 2020 and 2021. Anne was named to Lawdragon 500’s list of “Leading Litigators in America” in 2022 and 2023, is currently recognized as a California “Patent Star” by Managing Intellectual Property, and is also named among the leading patent lawyers in California by IAM Patent 1000, which remarked that she “can turn her hand to anything” and “seamlessly blends her technical aptitude with a pragmatic approach.” She has been recognized as a recommended lawyer for patent litigation by Legal 500, and was honored as one of just 52 California Trailblazers by The Recorder, which noted that “the smartphone in your pocket might not be the same if not for Anne Cappella.” Anne has also been included in The Recorder’s list of the top Women Leaders in Law, and named a “2016 Women of Influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Anne is actively involved in a number of initiatives aimed at bettering the careers of women lawyers. She is a member of the Firm’s global Women@Weil leadership board, a Firm affinity group that focuses on supporting women lawyers. Anne also is a formal mentor to several senior women associates, and a regular participant in women law student and engineer mentoring programs.