W. Chad Shear

W. Chad Shear is a highly experienced patent litigator with a practice primarily focused on complex, high-stakes disputes in the life sciences and technology sectors. He is particularly recognized for his work representing pharmaceutical companies in Hatch-Waxman litigation, including disputes involving blockbuster drugs for clients such as Gilead Sciences, Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma, Iroko Pharmaceuticals, and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, Spikevax. Beyond pharmaceuticals, his experience extends to augmented reality and video game technologies, as seen in Imaginear Inc v. Niantic Inc, and multimedia standard-essential patents related to video streaming in Nokia Technologies Oy v. Amazon.com, Inc. et al.

Shear primarily represents operating companies, often defending them against infringement allegations, but also acting as plaintiff to enforce their intellectual property rights. Of his seven tracked appearances, five have been on the defendant side and two on the plaintiff side. His significant defense work includes overturning a $2.5 billion jury verdict against Gilead Sciences in Idenix Pharmaceuticals LLC et al. v. Gilead Sciences, Inc., which was the largest patent damages award in history. As plaintiff counsel in Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Alkem Laboratories Ltd., a consent judgment was entered enjoining Alkem from infringing the patents-in-suit.

He is currently a partner at Cooley, where his practice emphasizes high-stakes pharmaceutical patent disputes. Prior to joining Cooley, he was a principal at Fish & Richardson, where he led the firm's life sciences and pharmaceutical litigation section and co-chaired its international post-grant group. Shear is also well-versed in proceedings before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), having handled numerous inter partes reviews (IPRs), including preventing institution of challenges against Gilead patents and winning IPRs that invalidated patents for the drug Humira.

W. Chad Shear earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University in 1996 and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1999. He is admitted to the State Bar of California and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, among other federal courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.