Overview
Industry Experience
Wendy R. Stein focuses her practice on intellectual property litigation, litigating patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation and other commercial litigation matters in the software, life sciences, real estate and hospitality fields.
Since the enactment of the Defend Trade Secrets Act in 2016, Wendy has focused a large part of her practice on trade secret matters in federal and state courts. On the plaintiff side, Wendy has repeatedly secured emergent relief on behalf of trade secret owners to protect their rights under the DTSA and related state laws to prevent the imminent dissemination or use of trade secrets. On the defense side, Wendy is frequently called upon to represent individual and corporate defendants accused of misappropriating alleged trade secrets in both arbitration and federal and state court proceedings. Recent trade secret defense wins include a voluntary dismissal of a case brought by an alleged trade secret owner after Wendy secured key admissions from its main witness during cross-examination at a preliminary injunction hearing, and, in another matter, a court order dismissing with prejudice an action in which her client was alleged to have misappropriated trade secrets under the DTSA.
Wendy also litigates patent and trademark infringement matters on both the plaintiff and defense side. With respect to patent eligibility litigation in particular, Wendy has both defended patents against 101 eligibility challenges and invalidated patent claims under 35 U.S.C. § 101. One recent defense win, affirmed by the Federal Circuit in December 2022, involved securing a declaratory judgment that a patent being wrongly asserted against her client was invalid for claiming “an unpatentable abstract idea.”
For over twenty years, Wendy has litigated intellectual property and related commercial disputes in federal and state courts throughout the United States, including New York, New Jersey, Delaware, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Nebraska, and before the Court of Appeals for the D.C. and Federal Circuits. Wendy also has valuable first chair litigation experience in New York’s Commercial Division.
Within the greater legal community, Wendy is actively engaged in the IP and federal litigation bars. She is currently President of the Federal Bar Association’s (FBA) Southern District of New York Chapter and previously served as Editor of its publication, The New York Minutes, from 2015-2019. She also served as Editor of the FBA IP Law Section’s publication, The IP Legal Browser. In 2019 and 2020, Wendy was an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School, where she taught lawyers admitted in foreign jurisdictions about U.S. federal court practice and in the SDNY in particular. Since 2022, she continues to guest lecture at Fordham.
*Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.
Honors
- Selected to the New Jersey Super Lawyers – Rising Stars list, Intellectual Property Litigation (2016)
Award Methodology
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Involvement
- Federal Bar Association, Southern District of New York Chapter, President (2022-present)
- New York Minutes, Editor (2015-2019)
- The IP Legal Browser, Editor (2019)
- Fordham University School of Law, Adjunct Professor (2019-2020); Guest Lecturer (2022)
Education
- Fordham University School of Law (J.D.)
- Brandeis University (B.A., magna cum laude)
- Yale School of Public Health (M.P.H.)
Admissions
- New York
- New Jersey
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
- U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
- U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas
Overview
Representative Trade Secret Litigation Matters
- First chaired preliminary injunction hearing, defending individual accused of trade secret misappropriation under federal and state law. Admissions secured by Wendy during cross-examination at the hearing led alleged trade secret owner to voluntarily dismiss the case days later and withdraw its motion for a preliminary injunction.
- Secured dismissal with prejudice of an action alleging that Wendy’s client unfairly competed with a non-party by misappropriating alleged trade secrets.
- Secured temporary restraining order on behalf of a trade secret owner to prevent the imminent disclosure of its trade secrets to the public.
- Member of trial team in case brought on behalf of a trade secret owner in New York District Court. Second Circuit later affirmed jury verdict of trade secret misappropriation and permanent injunction against future trade secret misappropriation.
- Secured emergent relief on behalf of a trade secret owner in case against former employees and new company set up by former employees.
Representative Patent and Other IP Litigation Matters
- Invalidated information exchange patent under 35 U.S.C. § 101 on grounds that it claimed patent ineligible subject matter.
- Represented pharmaceutical company in “first to invent” battle involving more than 40 depositions across the United States and India, including 15 testifying subject matter experts.
- Secured affirmance from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of a summary judgment that an entity did not infringe another’s patent and did not engage in false marking.
- Secured temporary restraining order on behalf of trademark owner to stop infringement of its trademark and cybersquatting.
- Argued in support of and executed ex parte seizure on behalf of trademark owner in counterfeiting case.
- Represented patent owners in litigation asserting patents in the air quality sensing and GPS spaces.
*Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.