Martin J. Black leads Dechert’s national IP litigation team. He is an experienced trial lawyer who has tried dozens of cases, winning numerous multi-million dollar awards as a plaintiff and successfully defending his clients in others. As a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, he has been recognized by his peers as one of the preeminent trial lawyers in North America. He is also an experienced appellate advocate. In SCA Hygiene Products v. First Quality Baby Products, he persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-1 decision to overturn 100 years of precedent and bar the defense of laches to claims for patent damages.
Mr. Black has handled a wide range of litigation and strategic patent matters for a diverse array of companies, including Microsoft Corporation, Samsung Electronics, Hitachi, Endo Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline, Baxter Healthcare, PepsiCo, Citigroup, Monster.com and others. He regularly tries cases all over the country and has obtained numerous multimillion-dollar awards. He has had significant success for branded pharmaceutical companies and tech companies in protecting their patent rights at trial. He prevailed in a five-week trial for Endo Pharmaceuticals against seven generic companies, winning injunctions against all seven companies and protecting over US$2 billion in sales. He has won nine multi-million dollar awards in technology cases, including back-to-back jury verdicts three months apart in 2019 of US$43 million (Intellectual Ventures v. Ericsson and T-Mobile) and US$45 million (Hitachi and Mondis v. LG). He also has special expertise in computer-related litigation. In one matter relating to computer monitor technology, he led an international team that generated US$125 million in revenue, culminating in a trial in the District of Delaware, at which he won a US$9 million award, including willfulness damages. In the Eastern District of Texas, he prevailed in a case relating to display patents invented by Hitachi, resulting in an award worth more than US$30 million. In a trade secret and patent case relating to computer avionics, he tried a four-week trial to a jury in the Western District of Tennessee, resulting in a US$23 million award, including willfulness damages and attorneys' fees. Notably, Mr. Black successfully represented Microsoft against Hon Hai Precision a/k/a FoxConn, one of the largest companies in the world, in an extremely financially significant claim in unpaid royalties under Foxconn’s Android operating system patent license.
In addition to his extensive patent litigation experience, Mr. Black has served as lead trial counsel in numerous trademark, copyright, software and trade secret disputes. These include Richards v. CNN International, (E.D. Pa.), which he tried for CNN International in relation to its World Beat music news show, and QVC v. Home Shopping Network, (TTAB), relating to the rights in the phrase "home shopping." He prevailed in the Third Circuit in Scharle v. NASCAR and The Franklin Mint, obtaining the dismissal of a copyright claim brought in relation to the creation of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Trophy. He has also tried trade secret cases relating to packaging machinery, satellite antennae, and advertising materials.
Mr. Black's litigation prowess has been recognized by Chambers USA, which routinely ranks him as one of the U.S.'s preeminent patent litigators, including being ranked in Band 1 in Pennsylvania for three consecutive years. In 2024, Chambers described Mr. Black as "creative, thoughtful and well-grounded in good science and good law." He is regularly recognized as a patent “IP STAR” by Managing Intellectual Property and was also named Managing IP’s 2024 Outstanding Litigator of the Year: Pennsylvania, marking his sixth win in the category. World IP Review also named Mr. Black a top IP lawyer in its WIPR Leaders 2024 guide.
Mr. Black is also routinely listed as a top patent litigator for Pennsylvania and nationwide by IAM Patent 1000, where in 2024, they said his expertise “shines in critical cases, making him highly sought after by leading pharmaceutical and technology companies.” In 2023, IAM noted him as having “a powerful presence in the courtroom” and for being “brilliant at distilling down complex ideas and bringing in multi-million-dollar wins for branded pharmaceutical and tech companies.” In 2022, IAM described Mr. Black as "a go-to lawyer thanks to his thorough case preparation, extensive trial experience, tactical nous and clear communication" who is "calm and measured in his approach, exudes confidence and gets the most difficult jobs done." In 2021, the same publication also praised Mr. Black as "one of the finest first-chair litigators in the country and a wonderful strategist" who "understands intricate science and can restate it in a way that a layperson trier of fact can understand."
The Legal 500 US consistently lists him for Intellectual Property: Patents: Litigation, including most recently in 2024. He is routinely named an IAM Strategy 300 Global Leader as well as an IAM Strategy 300 "World’s Leading IP Strategists". In 2022, Mr. Black was named a Top- Rated Lawyer in Intellectual Property Law by The American Lawyer. Mr. Black was named a winner by The Legal Intelligencer’ s 2020 Professional Excellence Awards in the "Distinguished Leader" category. He is also routinely named a "Life Sciences Star" by LMG Life Sciences, and in 2019, was short-listed for Hatch- Waxman Litigator of the Year. Benchmark Litigation has repeatedly selected him as a national "litigation star". He is also recognized as a preeminent intellectual property lawyer by Best Lawyers in America, was named a Law360 2017 MVP for intellectual property, and was honored as Best of the Bar by the Philadelphia Business Journal in its Best of the Bar Awards 2017.
