Keith R.
Hummel

Praised as “ingenious, resourceful, resolute and unflagging—there is nothing he cannot do when it comes to complex legal conflict,” Mr. Hummel is consistently recognized as one of the country’s leading practitioners in the intellectual property arena, particularly in critical multi‑jurisdictional patent disputes. (IAM Patent) He has been ranked by Chambers Global and Chambers USA as a leading intellectual property lawyer, and Benchmark Litigation consistently names him a “National Star” in intellectual property litigation. The Legal 500 US has recommended Mr. Hummel for patent litigation for over 10 years, as well as for his trade secrets work. Lawdragon has named him to its “500 Leading Global Litigators” and “500 Leading Litigators in America” lists. He is regularly recognized by The Best Lawyers in America, Euromoney Legal Media Group, IAM Patent, Leaders League and World IP Review. In addition, Mr. Hummel and his colleagues have repeatedly earned the Firm top‑tier recognition from Best Lawyers Best Law Firms for patent litigation and intellectual property litigation.

Mr. Hummel won a jury verdict for Amgen in a patent infringement case in Delaware federal court against Sanofi and Regeneron relating to Amgen’s patents covering a class of biologic drugs that treat high cholesterol. Mr. Hummel represented Amgen in litigation concerning its introduction of a biosimilar to AbbVie’s biologic drug, Humira®—one of the world’s largest‑selling drugs—in one of the first cases to proceed under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA). Amgen reached a global settlement with AbbVie that enabled Amgen to market the first approved biosimilar to Humira® in the U.S. and Europe.

Mr. Hummel represents Abiomed, a global medical device company that develops groundbreaking cardiovascular products, in patent infringement matters relating to guidance systems used in the company’s minimally invasive intravascular blood pumps. He also secured complete victories for Abiomed in four inter partes review proceedings and one post‑grant proceeding against WhiteSwell Medical relating to patents on devices and methods to treat pulmonary edema.

Mr. Hummel is defending Light & Wonder against several antitrust actions relating to claims that it monopolized an alleged market for automatic card shufflers used in casinos.

Mr. Hummel represents Biogen in several contractual and patent matters related to biologic medications. 

Mr. Hummel is intellectual property and antitrust counsel to CRISPR Therapeutics, a co‑owner of Nobel Prize‑winning CRISPR Cas9 gene editing technology and a developer of medical treatments based on this technology.

Mr. Hummel has represented Alarm.com in several patent infringement and contractual matters. He recently secured a favorable resolution in multijurisdictional litigation against Vivint, which spanned eight years and concerned over 35 patents for interactive security and home automation technology. He continues to represent Alarm.com on appeal after winning a trial decision in an International Trade Commission (ITC) investigation initiated by Causam Enterprises over electric demand management systems. 

Mr. Hummel represents SPI Group in its dispute against the Russian Federation over the ownership of the famous Stolichnaya vodka trademarks, as well as in a dispute with Brad Pitt concerning the ownership and management of Château Miraval, a leading wine producer.

Mr. Hummel successfully defended Axalta Coating Systems against claims by PPG that the company infringed a PPG patent on tri‑layer coating systems.

Mr. Hummel obtained a jury verdict for DRIT, an investment partnership, in a patent licensing dispute against Glaxo Group over the lupus drug Benlysta®. 

Mr. Hummel represented Qualcomm in a wide‑ranging antitrust, patent and contract dispute with Apple relating to Qualcomm’s patent licensing and modem chipset businesses. Over the years, he has also represented Qualcomm in several other patent matters involving RF downconversion technology, GPS technology, WiFi encryption technology and mobile fleet tracking systems.

Mr. Hummel successfully represented Reggie Brown in connection with his claim to an ownership interest in Snapchat, the disappearing message application. 

Mr. Hummel represented Medinol and OrbusNeich as plaintiffs in numerous commercial disputes and patent litigations against the major stent manufacturers. Among the highlights is a settlement with Boston Scientific Corporation (“BSC”), after seven weeks of trial, in which Medinol received $750 million and the return of BSC’s 20% stake in the company; a settlement payment to Medinol from Guidant that was reached just minutes before the jury verdict in an infringement case was to be read; and several settlements for OrbusNeich in patent actions brought in the U.S. and overseas.

Mr. Hummel was lead counsel for International Business Machines Corporation (“IBM”) in an action brought by Compression Labs asserting that the JPEG still image compression standard infringed its patent. The case settled on favorable terms after the court ruled the patent was limited to video compression.

Mr. Hummel was also featured as the “Litigator of the Week” by The Am Law Litigation Daily for obtaining affirmance in the Second Circuit of the dismissal of two lawsuits against IBM brought by South African nationals who attempted to hold IBM accountable for apartheid under the Alien Tort Statute. 

Mr. Hummel has handled numerous other significant intellectual property, antitrust and commercial matters, including:

• Successfully represented INEOS as plaintiff in a trade secret case concerning a revolutionary process for creating biofuels.

• Successfully represented Qualcomm in a trade secret matter involving misappropriation of Qualcomm’s proprietary and confidential source code.

• Successfully represented IBM against claims that IBM’s methods of manufacturing integrated circuits infringed patents held by Plasma Physics Corporation.

• Successfully represented Metroflor Corp. as plaintiff in a suit alleging infringement of patents on a novel flooring system, and in a lawsuit brought by its former CEO, who claimed to be a co-inventor of Metroflor’s patents.

• Successfully represented Qualcomm in patent infringement litigation against Broadcom involving wireless telecommunications technology.

• Successfully represented GlaxoSmithKline in its infringement case against Barr’s generic form of Avodart®.

• Obtained a summary judgment dismissing claims brought by Commercial Data Servers alleging that IBM had monopolized alleged markets for computer hardware, and granting IBM’s counterclaim for copyright infringement.

• Played a principal role in obtaining, on the eve of trial, summary judgment in a billion‑dollar class action securities case against IBM.

• Successfully represented Morgan Guaranty against fraud claims brought by Korean institutions in connection with the structuring of total return swap transactions involving foreign currencies.

• Acted as a principal member of the team that successfully represented Salomon Brothers in connection with several class action cases related to the Treasury bond market.

Mr. Hummel has experience handling matters under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He successfully represented IBM in connection with a joint DOJ/SEC probe into alleged bribery of Argentine government officials.

Mr. Hummel co‑authors the Intellectual Property Law Answer Book, published by the Practising Law Institute, which is currently in its ninth edition.

Mr. Hummel was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received a B.A. in Economics and English from the University of Notre Dame in 1987. Mr. Hummel graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1990, where he was the Senior Notes and Comments Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and elected to the Order of the Coif. He has served on the NYU Engelberg Center IP Advisory Board and was a long-term member of the Board of Visitors of Georgetown University Law Center.

Mr. Hummel joined Cravath in 1990 and was elected a partner in 1997.