Attorney in UCSB case will lead Nixon Peabody IP team
Nixon Peabody, the global law firm representing UC Santa Barbara in its LED patent lawsuit against major retailers, has named Seth Levy, the lead Peabody attorney for UCSB, to lead the firm’s intellectual property practice.
Levy, who has been with the law firm since 2012 and is a partner in its Los Angeles office, will be in charge of Nixon’s intellectual property practice, which includes IP litigation, patents, trademarks and copyrights, trade secrets, and technology transfer and licensing, as well as a team dedicated to Section 337 proceedings before the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Levy focuses his practice on intellectual property protection, licensing, strategy, disputes, and research transactions and operations, particularly in life sciences and healthcare.
Levy also serves as the co-chair of Nixon Peabody’s Life Sciences practice and previously served as managing partner of the firm’s Los Angeles office. He also has expertise in a range of technology and clinical research matters and has experience advising technology transfer programs at academic and healthcare institutions, and he acts as outside general counsel to technology companies, the firm said in its news release.
One of Levy’s biggest IP cases in recent years, the UCSB LED patent lawsuit, is still ongoing. The university is suing a wide range of retailers and manufacturers of light bulbs, alleging that they have violated university patents on a particular type of light-emitting diode bulb.
UCSB and the UC system started their fight against major retailers in 2019, filing a “first-of-its-kind patent enforcement campaign against an entire lighting industry” the university said on its website regarding the litigation.
The initial lawsuit started with five major retailers: Amazon, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ikea, Target, and Walmart. In 2020, the university and Nixon filed an additional complaint, expanding the case to include General Electric, Savant Systems, Feit Electric, Home Depot, Ikea, and Satco Products.
Since filing the initial lawsuit, UCSB has licensed its LED technology to a slew of companies who were named in the case, including Bed, Bath and Beyond.
