Elaine Blais, a partner in the firm’s Litigation Department, focuses her practice on intellectual property litigation, particularly with respect to patent litigation. Ms. Blais has handled numerous patent infringement lawsuits in federal courts nationwide. She joined Goodwin Procter in 2001 and is currently a member of the firm’s Hiring Committee and Partner Integration Committee. She also serves on the firmwide Women’s Initiative Steering Committee and cochairs the Boston Women’s Initiative Council. Ms. Blais has also served at various times on the firm’s Alternative Billing Strategies, Renovations, and Big Think Committees.
WORK FOR CLIENTS
Ms. Blais devotes a substantial amount of her practice to patent litigation. She has advised clients and participated in all phases of patent litigation, from initial counseling up through trial and appeal. Ms. Blais has worked on patent cases involving diverse areas of technology, including pharmaceutical products (Teva Pharmaceuticals), stem cell technology (ViaCell, Inc.), prepaid wireless technology (Freedom Wireless), the internet (Lycos, Inc.), email tracking systems, semiconductor manufacturing tools, consumer products, automatic transmission shift cables, software for reducing artifacts in MRI images, gaming devices and methods, glider designs, steel processing lines, and spinal implants. She has also represented clients in cases involving copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, unfair competition and patentrelated antitrust issues. Ms. Blais has also filed amicus briefs on behalf of firm clients in a number of significant patent cases before the United States Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit sitting en banc, including Microsoft v. i4i, Caraco v. Novo Nordisk, and Therasense v. Becton Dickinson.
Ms. Blais has devoted a significant amount of her practice to counseling clients and advocating to Congress on behalf of clients regarding patent policy. In this capacity, she has worked on various pieces of legislation impacting the generic pharmaceutical industry. Ms. Blais has been involved in drafting proposed legislation and has made numerous presentations before Congressional members and staff.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Ms. Blais is a member of the American Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.
In 2011, Ms. Blais was selected by the firm to participate in LEAD Boston, a yearlong program focused on leadership and social justice.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Prior to joining Goodwin Procter, Ms. Blais was an associate at Jones Day, where she concentrated her practice on patent, trademark and copyright litigation.
BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS
Ms. Blais is a member of the Massachusetts, Illinois (inactive) and Ohio (inactive) state bars. She is also admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. District Courts for the District of Massachusetts, the Eastern District of Texas, the Northern District
of Ohio, the Northern District of Illinois and the Eastern District of Michigan as well as the Courts of Appeals for the First and Federal Circuits. Ms. Blais has also appeared pro hac vice in numerous U.S. District Courts around the country.
RECOGNITION
In 2009, Ms. Blais was awarded the Mentor Award from the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project for her work on behalf of human rights and immigrant advocacy. Ms. Blais continues to dedicate pro bono time to the representation of immigrants seeking asylum, refugee status, or special immigrant juvenile status in the United States.
While attending law school, Ms. Blais was an associate editor of The Ohio State Law Journal.
EDUCATION
J.D., 1995 OSU College of Law (with honors, Order of the Coif)
B.A., 1991 Allegheny College