Christopher M. Gallo

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Christopher M. Gallo, Ph.D. — Patent Litigation Summary

Focus areas. Gallo is a director in Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox's Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Group in Washington, DC. His docket is life sciences and pharma, not electronics or standards work: the tracked matters involve next-generation/DNA sequencing diagnostics (TwinStrand) and generic-drug/ANDA disputes (Breckenridge). The firm bio describes his practice as patent counseling and post-grant proceedings in biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals — cell and gene therapy, biologics, small-molecule drugs, antibodies, molecular diagnostics, synthetic biology, formulations, polymorphs/drug salts, and methods of treatment — plus federal court litigation, including Hatch-Waxman cases, and ITC work. He also has represented pharmaceutical companies in FDA Citizen Petition responses and in challenges to FDA decisions in federal court. Nothing in his tracked appearances or practice description indicates Wi-Fi/standards-essential, software, or mechanical patent work.

Side preference. Mixed, and the split is by technology rather than by role. Two of the three tracked appearances are plaintiff-side and one is defendant-side. The plaintiff work is innovator/patent-owner enforcement for life-science clients, not NPE/PAE assertion; the defendant-side work is for a generic pharmaceutical manufacturer. In practice this reads as a biotech-owner-side and pharma-defendant-side practice rather than a plaintiff's-bar specialty.

Firm context. He has been at Sterne Kessler throughout his tracked litigation career (listed as "Counsel" in the matters above; the firm announced his election to director effective January 1, 2024). Before law practice he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine — technical, not legal, experience. No prior law firm appears in the sources reviewed.

Notable matters and outcomes. The most prominent tracked case is TwinStrand Biosciences, Inc. & University of Washington v. Guardant Health, Inc. (D. Del., C.A. No. 21-1126). Gallo was a member of the trial team that obtained an $83.4 million jury verdict on November 14, 2023, with the jury finding willful infringement of U.S. Patents 10,760,127 and 10,287,631 (duplex sequencing for detecting low-frequency mutations). Sterne Kessler also handled related PTAB matters in which the Board rejected Guardant's invalidity arguments on all 30 claims of the '127 patent; Gallo is named back-up counsel on TwinStrand's IPR petitions against Guardant patents (e.g., IPR2022-00746). On the pharma side, he is listed on the Sterne Kessler team that obtained a Pfizer settlement for client Dexcel Pharma (announced April 2026), and public filings show him on the firm's Breckenridge Pharmaceutical team in ANDA litigation and related PTAB work (e.g., Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc. v. Hetero USA Inc., D. Del. No. 24-cv-571; IPR2025-01107). Two caveats: the tracked defendant-side caption Unified Patents, LLC v. Breckenridge Pharmaceutical Inc. could not be independently verified in the sources reviewed, and one tracked plaintiff-side appearance is untitled and unverifiable.

PTAB/IPR experience. Yes — repeated PTAB involvement spanning 2016 to 2025, in both petitioner and patent-owner roles, most often as back-up rather than lead counsel. Examples include IPR2016-01893 (patent owner, back-up), IPR2022-00746 and IPR2022-01400 (TwinStrand as petitioner, back-up), and IPR2022-01158 (University of Washington as patent owner, back-up and oral advocate under the Board's LEAP program).

Bar / education. J.D., George Washington University Law School; Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular genetics, University of Virginia; B.S., Pennsylvania State University. Admitted in Maryland (2014) and the District of Columbia (2016); registered with the USPTO (Reg. No. 70,291); admitted to the Federal Circuit, D.D.C., and D. Md.