Yung-Hoon Ha

Specialty / focus areas. Yung-Hoon (Sam) Ha, Ph.D., is a patent trial and post-grant specialist at Desmarais LLP, where he leads the firm's PTAB post-grant practice. His technical work spans semiconductor fabrication and processing, microprocessor architecture, software, rechargeable batteries, hearing aids, and materials science (polymers, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes — his doctoral field), with additional pharma exposure through his tracked cases (epinephrine film delivery; photodynamic therapy devices). He also has substantial ITC Section 337 experience, and prior to litigation he prosecuted several hundred patent portfolios, giving him a prosecution-to-litigation background that his firm bio says informs his case strategy.

Side preference and firm context. His tracked appearances skew slightly defense-side (2 of 3 as defendant/counsel, 1 as plaintiff/petitioner's counsel), but he works both sides of IPRs — appearing as petitioner's counsel (e.g., IBM, Cisco) and as patent-owner counsel (e.g., Samsung, Sun Pharma, Iono Pharma). His clients are predominantly large operating companies rather than NPEs. He joined Desmarais as a partner in 2020 after 15 years at WilmerHale in New York (2005–2020, per his firm bio) and also leads Desmarais' Korean practice development.

Notable cases and outcomes. His most publicized result is the February 2024 Western District of Texas jury verdict clearing Samsung in the roughly $4 billion Demaray semiconductor-patent case, which Law360 reported settled and dismissed in January 2026. At the ITC, he was on the Desmarais team that secured a final determination for Sun Pharmaceutical in Investigation No. 337-TA-1411, with the Commission finding Biofrontera's RhodoLED XL system infringed two Sun patents and issuing exclusion and cease-and-desist orders. In his tracked IPR work, he successfully defended patent owner Iono Pharma in IPR2025-00874 (institution denied on discretionary grounds) and defended Sun's '028 patent in Biofrontera's IPR challenge — though Biofrontera announced a February 2026 final written decision invalidating all challenged claims of that patent, a notable loss for his client. His firm bio also cites invalidating all 371 claims of ten patents in one of the largest IPR proceedings ever brought, affirmed by the Federal Circuit.

PTAB / IPR experience; credentials. Ha regularly appears in IPR/PGR proceedings (a decade-plus of PTAB work), representing both petitioners and patent owners. Education: B.S. in materials science and engineering, Cornell (1997, cum laude); Ph.D., MIT (2002); J.D., Fordham (2009). He is admitted in New York (2009), registered with the USPTO, and admitted to the Federal Circuit and SDNY. Note: some third-party directories mix in credentials of a same-named attorney (e.g., a Cooley litigation-chair listing); this summary relies only on Desmarais/WilmerHale sources and court filings for the individual described above.