Sharon L. Davis
Primary Areas of Practice
"...[E]ndorsed for her 'masterful knowledge of the law and ability to convey complex arguments in a nuanced and effective manner.'"
- 2021 IAM Patent 1000: The World's Leading Patent Professionals
Overview
Sharon Davis represents clients in federal District Courts and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in post-grant proceedings. Her patent litigation experience spans a wide range of technical fields including video streaming, Internet technology, and e-commerce, for clients like ViacomCBS Inc., Fandango LLC, and TripAdvisor LLC, as well as a number of other high-profile media and publishing concerns. Following a clerkship with the Honorable Patrick Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Sharon was a litigator with Williams & Connolly LLP, where she worked on a wide variety of litigation matters. She has been litigating patent cases since 1997, focusing almost exclusively on the defense of claims.
In this role, Sharon advises clients on handling patent infringement claims from inception to resolution. At the outset of a matter she emphasizes careful assessment that allows her to determine what the defense is likely to require and identify the first steps to an efficient resolution. She tells her clients what is likely to happen, and charts a step-by-step path to a successful resolution. That path can include negotiations; technical analysis of the asserted claims; developing litigation strategy; court appearances and arguments; fact and expert discovery; dispositive motions; and, where necessary, trial and appeals.
In her day-to-day practice, Sharon is a problem-solver and a collaborator. The ideal resolution is, as she puts it, “winning without winning”. This means identifying and pursuing a strategy that resolves a case quickly, and at minimal cost, without requiring time-consuming and expensive undertakings like discovery, extensive motion practice, and so on. This approach may consist of exposing the plaintiff to the possibility of such significant expense, risk, or challenge that they settle quickly and favorably. It may also consist of early dispositive motions that either end or significantly undercut the plaintiff’s case in its infancy.
This approach, coupled with a fact-based, nonconfrontational negotiating style, and the judgment and experience of 25 years of litigation, is highly effective in concluding disputes on terms that are both dispositive and favorable to her clients. Her pragmatic, results-oriented approach emphasizes minimizing unnecessarily adversarial lawyering, and relentlessly focusing on the business impact of her representation. Rather than reflexively beginning the rote processes of litigation, Sharon strives to keep the larger picture in focus, and advocate with it in mind.
The result is a track record of both efficiency and success, which her clients have come to rely on and plaintiffs have learned to respect.
Experience
In the area of patent litigation, Sharon advises clients on litigation strategy with respect to infringement, validity, and unenforceability issues. She has represented multiple media and technology companies in defending patent infringement claims in the District Court, Federal Circuit, and Patent and Trademark Office proceedings, including Viacom, Inc., Fandango LLC, TripAdvisor LLC, and Donuts, Inc. She has also handled Hatch-Waxman litigations relating to, inter alia, fentanyl transdermal patches, paclitaxel, levalbuterol, and levocetirizine. Representative litigation matters include Mankes v. Fandango in the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Federal Circuit; WhitServe LLC v. Donuts, Inc. in the District of Delaware and the Federal Circuit; and Bartonfalls LLC v. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., et. al. in the Eastern District of Texas.
Honors & Recognitions
Intellectual Asset Management’s (IAM) Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Professionals (2014-2024)
Ranked in Litigation in the DC Metro Area
Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers (2013-2024)
Included in the Top 50 Women Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers list (2023-2024)
Benchmark Litigation "Litigation Star" (2019-2025)
Ranked in the District of Columbia and Nationally
Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) IP Stars (2022-2024)
Ranked as a Patent Star in the District of Columbia and in the U.S. (National)
Newsroom
News
Speaking Engagements
Community & Professional
Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia
American Bar Association (ABA)
Board of Trustees of Edmund Burke School, President
Practices
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Appellate Litigation
- Domain Names and Website Content
- Emerging Companies
- Hatch-Waxman Litigation
- Inter Partes Review (IPR) and Post Grant Review (PGR)
- Licensing and Transactions
- Media and Constitutional Law
- Patent Litigation
- Patent Strategy and Counseling
- Trade Secret Litigation
Education
J.D., University of Chicago Law School (high honors)
B.S., Political Science, Birmingham-Southern College (summa cum laude)
Bar & Court Admissions
Bar Admissions
- District of Columbia
- Texas
Court Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia