Andrew Danford

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Andrew J. Danford — Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (Boston)

Focus areas. Danford's practice is concentrated in patent and IP litigation for life sciences and technology clients. On the life sciences side, his firm bio and Law360 profile describe substantial BPCIA biosimilar litigation and Hatch-Waxman/ANDA work, plus declaratory judgment actions on behalf of innovator pharmaceutical companies; his PTAB filings name Genentech, AbbVie, Takeda, AstraZeneca, Cephalon, Celgene, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna as clients. On the technology side, his documented matters involve smartphones, microprocessors, telecommunications and networking, internet technologies, mobile check deposit, and video compression. The one captioned tracked case, Avant Location Technologies LLC v. Apple Inc. (W.D. Tex.), concerns mobile-station location/BLE "Find My"-type technology and a seven-patent family Apple challenged in IPR. His undergraduate degree is in a technical field (SB, MIT, 2005), which is consistent with the hardware and standards-heavy docket.

Side preference. The tracked list shows 2 defendant-side appearances and 0 plaintiff-side, and his most visible work is defense of operating companies (Apple, PNC Bank, Intel). That said, the sample is small and should not be read as a pure defense practice: his firm biography and Law360 profile describe representing patentees/innovators in jury trials and as patent owner in biosimilar IPRs (Genentech's Herceptin franchise), and he has represented PNC both as IPR petitioner and as defendant. Treat him as a generalist patent litigator who more often appears for operating companies than for NPE/PAE plaintiffs; no tracked appearance has him on the plaintiff side.

Firm context. Danford has spent his entire post-clerkship career at WilmerHale, currently as a partner in the Boston office. Before joining the firm he clerked for Judge Sandra L. Lynch on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (2008–2009). No prior law firm is identified in the sources reviewed.

Notable matters, PTAB, and credentials. He was centrally involved in the Federal Circuit appeal that vacated a $506 million judgment against Apple in the WARF microprocessor case, and was a team member on appeals wiping out the VirnetX verdict (over $500M, Fed. Cir. 2023) and the Optis Cellular verdict ($300M, vacated June 16, 2025, on SEP/damages issues). In USAA v. PNC Bank, he argued for PNC as appellee in the Federal Circuit's January 30, 2025 affirmance of PTAB obviousness findings, and was on the team that obtained the June 12, 2025 § 101 reversal of roughly $223 million in jury verdicts. He represents Moderna in ModernaTX v. Pfizer (D. Mass.) and Intel in the VLSI v. Intel Federal Circuit appeal. He is a frequent PTAB participant — the firm cites "dozens" of IPRs, and pro hac vice admissions appear across the Genentech IPR2017 series, IPR2021-01077 (PNC v. USAA), IPR2023-00512 (Apotex v. Celgene), IPR2023-01358 (Moderna), and the 2025 Apple v. Avant petitions, several of which were terminated by discretionary denial in January 2026. Bar admissions: Massachusetts (2009) and New York (2010); D. Mass., First Circuit, Federal Circuit. JD, Stanford Law School (2008, with distinction, Order of the Coif).

Note on sourcing: the "Untitled case" entry in the tracked data carries only defendant-side/WilmerHale information and could not be matched to a specific caption; the two-appearance total is therefore smaller than the breadth of publicly documented matters above, which come from firm and PTAB filings rather than the tracked list.