Shamita Etienne-Cummings
Partner
Washington, D.C.
Shamita Etienne-Cummings
Partner
Washington, D.C.
Contact details
Shamita is a partner in the Intellectual Property practice in the Washington, D.C. office and also serves as a member of the Global Board. She serves technology clients by drawing on her business, technical and legal acumen developed over 30 plus years in engineering, law and management. Her experience enables her to take a client-focused business practical approach leading her to become a trusted advisor to many leading global technology companies.
Shamita is consistently recognized as a World’s Leading Patent Professionals by IAM Patent 1000 and has earned praises from clients: “Notching up win after win, Shamita is great - she is very aggressive and not shy about going after the best result for her client with all she’s got.” She is also ranked as a Patent Star on Managing IP's IP Stars list and is listed among the top 100 International Trade Commission (ITC) practitioners in the last five years, according to Patexia’s ITC Intelligence Report 2022.
Shamita's industry experience focuses on mobile communication, semiconductor design and processing, media, aerospace, defense, consumer electronic devices and medical devices. She draws on her deep technical knowledge, based on her previous work as an electrical engineer and program manager for GTE Corporation in the mobile telecommunications industry, where she designed and implemented wireless communication and satellite systems.
In addition to being a first chair patent litigator, Shamita represents clients in breach of contract and trade secret matters before district courts, the ITC and the International Commercial Court (ICC), and routinely provides advice to clients on general patent diligence matters.
Shamita joins Allen & Overy from an AmLaw top 10 firm where she had been formerly elected to the Firm’s eight member Global Management Team. While there she also was a member of the firm’s senior leadership team as the Office Executive for the Washington, D.C. office. Shamita is an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University School of Law where she teaches a patent trial course.
Qualifications
Professional
Admitted: State Bar of California
Admitted: District of Columbia Bar
US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
US District Court for the Western District of Texas
US District Court for the Southern District of California
US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
United States Patent and Trademark Office
US Supreme Court
Academic
JD, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Carbondale, IL
B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
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Qualifications
Professional
Admitted: State Bar of California
Admitted: District of Columbia Bar
US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
US District Court for the Western District of Texas
US District Court for the Southern District of California
US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
United States Patent and Trademark Office
US Supreme Court
Academic
JD, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Carbondale, IL
B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Other noteworthy experience
Advising:
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Google Inc. Defending against Sonos’s patent infringement claims targeting Google audio home products.
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Walmart Stores. Lead counsel defending against Regents of the University of California's patent infringement claims relating to Filament LEDs.
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GlobalFoundries. Lead counsel in a complex patent case in which her team invalidated all 275 claims across all seven asserted plasma processing patents.
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. Lead counsel as one of 29 opposing parties in a complex multidistrict litigation in the Western District of Pennsylvania against Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. The litigation involved five patents regarding secure data transmissions, four of which were asserted against JPMC's mobile banking applications.
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Google Inc. Lead counsel defending against EcoFactor's' patent infringement claims targeting Nest Smart Thermostats.
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Xi'an Brightway Energy Equipment and Brightway Solids Control. Lead counsel defending against M-I L.L.C. patent infringement claims targeting shaker screens for drilling fluids.
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Suzhou Real Power Electric Appliance. Lead counsel defending against iRobot's patent infringement claims relating to robotic vacuum cleaners.
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Google Inc. Lead counsel defending against Enterprise Systems Technologies' patent infringement claims against the company's customers, Samsung, HTC and LG. EST asserted three patents against mobile devices incorporating Google's products and services. The Investigation was settled favorably for the technology company shortly after the Judge granted summary determination on one of the three patents.
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Google Inc. Lead counsel defending against Nokia in a second ITC investigation in which Nokia asserted four patents against Google's products and services. This investigation settled very favorably for the technology company in February 2014.
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Toshiba and Kioxia. Lead counsel relating to semiconductor chips.
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Panasonic. Lead counsel in a patent case relating to testing of semiconductor chips.
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LG entities. Lead counsel in a patent case relating to GPS technology and navigation applications.
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American Express. Lead counsel in concurrent district court and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) proceedings involving patents regarding secure financial transactions.
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American Express. Lead counsel in patent infringement suit directed as secure transactions. Court granted motion to dismiss early in the litigation.
Awards & accolades
United States: National—International Trade Commission
IAM Patent 1000, 2022
United States: DC Metro Area—Litigation
IAM Patent 1000, 2022
Managing Intellectual Property
Patent Star, 2022
