Laura Stafford

Photo of Laura Stafford

As a Litigation associate, Laura Stafford focuses her practice on complex business disputes, with a particular emphasis on intellectual property litigation. She is experienced in all stages of the litigation process, including pre-suit due diligence, discovery, summary judgment and trial.

Laura has worked on a range of matters in the federal courts, including serving on the successful trial teams in MobileMedia Ideas v. Apple and ADREA v. Barnes & Noble, as well as before the International Trade Commission. She is also experienced in financial services disputes and has been closely involved in the ongoing litigations in Puerto Rico pursuant to PROMESA.

Connect: Read more about Laura Stafford
Firm/Organization: Proskauer Rose LLP
Blogs: New England IP Blog, Proskauer For Good, The Capital Commitment

Latest Articles

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Earlier this month, Proskauer filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in support of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ ban on assault weapons, such as the AK-47 or the AR-15, and large-capacity magazines.  We filed the brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Worman v. Healey, a case challenging the ban on Second Amendment grounds.  Partner Kimberly Mottley and I led the team,…
A recent settled SEC order, In re Arlington Capital Management, Inc. and Joseph F. LoPresti, highlights the potential benefits of voluntarily taking steps to remediate conduct or practices that could run afoul of the SEC’s rules and standards. If done correctly, voluntary remediation can result in meaningful reductions in the sanctions sought by the SEC. But if done incorrectly, remediation can result in wasted time and money – and possibly make matters worse. This…
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A recent opinion from Judge Shea in the District of Connecticut sheds important light on the sufficiency of pleadings in declaratory judgment patent cases.  Noting that declaratory judgment actions are of particular importance in the intellectual property sphere, Judge Shea denied a motion to dismiss a complaint – even though the complaint included patents issued after the action was filed, and contained only a comparatively simple allegation of invalidity. The case involves a dispute between Anthem, an online…
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In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the Federal Circuit’s VE Holding opinion, which had permitted patent defendants to be sued in any forum in which they were subject to personal jurisdiction.  Now, patent cases can be brought in only one of two places: (1) the defendant’s state of incorporation; or (2) a district where infringing activity has occurred, and the defendant has a regular and established place of business.…
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that laches is not a defense in the majority of patent cases. Justice Alito, writing for the 7-1 majority, found the application of laches to patent disputes incompatible with the six-year statute of limitations found in 35 U.S.C. § 286. The decision arose out of a dispute between two competitors in the market for adult incontinence products. In October 2003, SCA Hygiene sent an infringement notice letter to its competitor,…
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A recent case from the District of Connecticut provides important insight into personal jurisdiction analysis, and serves as a reminder that sometimes even modest connections to a state can render a company subject to suit in that state. Here, Judge Vanessa Bryant found that Connecticut could exercise personal jurisdiction over AMP Medical Products, a Nevada company that sold $450 worth of infringing products into Connecticut.…
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Judge Allison Burroughs of the District of Massachusetts recently issued a decision that provides much-needed insight into pleading standards in patent cases. With the demise of Form 18 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, litigants have been faced with a number of questions concerning the level of detail a plaintiff needs to include in a patent complaint – and interestingly, it appears that direct infringement may at times be more difficult to plead than indirect…
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In a recent decision out of the District of Massachusetts, Judge Talwani provided litigants with insights into patent subject matter jurisdiction in declaratory judgment actions. Here the patent owner, US Carburetion, had lost previous motions to throw the case out due to lack of declaratory judgment jurisdiction. But after repeatedly asserting that it does not want to enforce its patents against Gen-Connect, and filing a permanent irrevocable convent stating as such, the Court agreed to dismiss the case.…
We wrote recently about a summary judgment decision in which Judge Indira Talwani found certain asserted claims of two patents on a type of breakable screw to be obvious in light of the prior art. This ruling came even though the patentee had produced some evidence of copying, and even though the accused infringer had not shown a motivation to combine. The case provides useful insights into the law on patent obviousness, and this post …
In a recent decision, Judge Vanessa L. Bryant shed some light on a significant new issue: trademark infringement in the world of internet keyword advertising. In a case with important implications for online marketing strategies, Judge Bryant denied Provide Commerce’s request for partial summary judgment against trademark owner Edible Arrangements, which had filed a suit for trademark infringement against one of its main competitors in fruit and gift basket sales. With online advertising increasingly crucial…