William M. Jay

William M. Jay is a distinguished partner and Co-Chair of Goodwin Procter's Appellate & Supreme Court Litigation practice, where he also serves as co-chair of the firm's broader Complex Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice. His practice areas encompass a wide range of intellectual property matters, including patent, copyright, and trademark law, with a particular emphasis on appellate strategy and proceedings before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court. His experience spans diverse technology sectors, including wireless communication standards (LTE/5G), digital signal processing, medical devices, software, and pharmaceutical patents.

Mr. Jay's case history reflects a practice that primarily represents patent owners or plaintiffs in infringement disputes, with three of his four tracked appearances on the plaintiff side, and one defendant-side appearance in an action challenging a patent owner's rights. For example, he has represented Personalized Media Communications, LLC and Optis Wireless Technology, LLC as plaintiff-appellant/lead attorney against Apple Inc. He also successfully argued for Insulet Corp. as plaintiff-appellee in a medical device trade secret and patent dispute. He has stated that his work in IPRs has included representing both patent owners and challengers.

He joined Goodwin Procter in 2012, bringing extensive experience from his prior role as an Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a litigation associate at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Notably, he argued for Personalized Media Communications, LLC in two Federal Circuit appeals against Apple Inc., securing a reversal of unpatentability findings on certain claims in one instance (2020) and arguing for the appellant in a case where a jury's $308 million infringement verdict was later deemed unenforceable due to prosecution laches (2023). In Optis Wireless Technology, LLC et al. v. Apple Inc., he represented Optis in a major Federal Circuit dispute over 5G/LTE standard-essential patents, where the court issued a split decision and ordered a new trial for infringement and damages after a $300 million jury award. He also recently argued for Insulet Corp. in a Federal Circuit appeal where a jury awarded over $450 million in damages for trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement.

Mr. Jay is highly active in PTAB and IPR proceedings, having handled numerous cases arising from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, representing both patent owners and challengers. His appellate proficiency is widely recognized; he has argued 17 cases before the Supreme Court and 40 times at the Federal Circuit, filing more than 120 briefs in patent appeals alone. He was recognized as "Appellate Litigator of the Year – Intellectual Property" at the 2024 LMG Life Sciences Americas Awards. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2001, where he was an Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review, and received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1998. Following law school, he clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court.