Noted IP Expert Shankar ("Sean") Iyer Joins Compass Lexecon

We are delighted to announce that Shankar ("Sean") Iyer, one of the country's leading Intellectual Property experts with a related expertise in marketing and consumer behavior, has joined Compass Lexecon. Sean will be based in our Washington, DC and New York offices, but will also regularly spend time and have a presence in Silicon Valley. Sean comes to us from Cornerstone Research, where he headed that firm's Intellectual Property practice.

Sean has worked extensively on many of the most-watched intellectual property battles of recent times. He has worked with clients in dozens of patent and other intellectual property cases in U.S. federal courts, before the International Trade Commission (ITC), and, most recently, in Indian High Courts. Sean has extensive experience in global "smartphone war" litigations and numerous federal court cases involving software features, cellular communications, cable and satellite TV, remote data storage, secure Internet communications, sensors, pharmaceutical products, and medical devices. His expertise includes a broad range of cutting-edge topics, including consumer surveys, conjoint analysis, experimental designs, and various market-based approaches to analyze applicability of the entire market value rule (EMVR) and to apportion damages. Sean has also consulted to clients on numerous disputes related to licensing, co-development, and collaboration agreements in the biotechnology and life sciences industries and has led teams in both commercial success and irreparable harm matters
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In addition to patent litigation, Sean's experience includes high-profile trademark and trade dress cases that include confusion, dilution, blurring, tarnishment, and other harm-to-brand issues. He has worked on several trade secrets misappropriation matters in high tech industries and has analyzed business-to-business (B2B) marketing, vendor practices, hiring and employee mobility issues, intellectual property-ownership agreements for joint ventures, and damages. Sean's copyright experience includes rate-setting proceedings at the Copyright Royalty Board. Sean also has extensive experience working with marketing and consumer behavior experts in consumer fraud, product liability litigation, FTC deceptive advertising matters and IRS disputes. His work in these areas includes marketing and consumer behavior aspects of what the "reasonable consumer" would expect and market studies to assess reliance and materiality. Outside of intellectual property and marketing matters, Sean frequently consults with clients on a wide variety of issues relating to markets and competition in high-tech industries and emerging technologies.

Sean writes regularly on litigation topics. Recent publications include "Privacy Fixing and Predatory Privacy: The Intersection of Big Data, Privacy Policies, and Antitrust," forthcoming in Antitrust Chronicle; and "Conjoint Analysis in Litigation," in Handbook of Marketing Analytics: Methods and Applications in Marketing Management, Public Policy, and Litigation Support (Natalie Mizik and Dominique M. Hanssens, eds.), forthcoming from Edward Elgar Publishing.

Sean did Ph.D. coursework and received a M.A in Economics from University of Florida - Warrington College of Business and a B.Sc. (Hons.) Economics from Presidency College in Kolkata, India.

Commenting on Sean's arrival, Daniel R. Fischel, Compass Lexecon's President stated, "adding Sean is an incredibly exciting development for us. Having Sean as part of our firm along with his network of other intellectual property and marketing and consumer behaviour experts will greatly expand our capability to serve our clients in these areas." Added Sean, "It is a real privilege to be at Compass Lexecon. I'm thrilled to be part of the team and look forward to working with an extraordinary group of experts and consultants to serve the firm's clients."