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Darrick Hooker
OVERVIEW

Darrick J. Hooker

Partner

Chicago

One N. Wacker Drive
Suite 4400
Chicago, IL 60606-2833

P 312-214-4856

F 312-759-5646

With a reputation for having an in-depth understanding of his client’s businesses and their technologies, Darrick Hooker is a counselor and a litigator who routinely advises clients on a variety of intellectual property issues, with a focus on patents. He also helps protect clients’ trade secrets, trademarks, and copyrights and has a thriving commercial litigation and entertainment law practice.

OVERVIEW

With a reputation for having an in-depth understanding of his client’s businesses and their technologies, Darrick Hooker is a counselor and a litigator who routinely advises clients on a variety of intellectual property issues, with a focus on patents. He also helps protect clients’ trade secrets, trademarks, and copyrights and has a thriving commercial litigation and entertainment law practice.

Darrick strives to help his clients identify and manage their global IP assets. He is able to do this successfully as a result of his deep transactional and litigation experience, including but not limited to, the medical device, pharmaceutical, health care, computer software, chemical, mechanical device, industrial, renewable energy, utility, mechanical engineering, and automotive and transportation industries. 

Darrick assists his clients with licensing, risk assessment and management, internal governance, compliance, and due diligence investigations in connection with licensing transactions, mergers and acquisitions. He brings particular strength where intellectual property portfolio acquisitions involve issues of licensing and “freedom to practice” analyses of products, methods, and packaging. This includes conducting patent landscape investigations, and opinion work such as patentability, validity, non-infringement, and freedom-to-operate opinions.

He is also skilled in conducting initial case evaluation and assessment, developing case and trial strategy and settlement options, managing all phases of discovery, as well as with Markman hearings, trial, and post-trial proceedings and appeal. 

As a commercial litigator, Darrick represents clients in matters involving complex cybersecurity, product liability and premises liability, along with breach of commercial agreements. In the entertainment sphere, he advises on intellectual property, licensing and other contract rights, publishing rights, rights of publicity, and branding issues. 

Professional and Community Involvement

Board of directors, Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association 

Board of directors, Free Spirit Media 

Board of directors, Institute for Science Education & Technology Board of Directors

Board of directors, Firehouse Community Arts Center 

Member, Indiana University Maurer School of Law Intellectual Property Advisory Board

Member, American Intellectual Property Law Association

Member, American Bar Association

Fellow, Chicago Bar Association Minority Legal Education Resource Program

Leadership Greater Chicago

Former board of directors, Centers for New Horizons

Honors

The Best Lawyers in America, 2024-2025

Lawyers of Color, Nation’s Best Honoree, 2019

Illinois Super Lawyers, 2023-2024; Rising Star, 2012-2014

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, 40 Under Forty, 2014

Who’s Who in Black Chicago, Chicago’s Counselors at Law, 2010

Stakeholder 100 Academy, 2007

Experience
  • Represented Pure Asphalt Co., a leading developer, producer and supplier of high quality coatings for the construction/building and automotive/transportation industries, in getting all claims dismissed in a trade secret misappropriation suit; obtained judgment on the pleadings as to the trade secret misappropriation and declaratory judgment counterclaims and on the joint motion for partial summary judgment as to the partial disclosure and use of the proprietary formula (Ziebart International Corporation v. Z Technologies Corporation)
  • Represented Mortimer Enterprises in a trademark dispute involving the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally; reopened and set aside a procedural default and obtained a denial of the plaintiff’s preliminary injunction motion, and successfully settled the matter after court-ordered mediation (Sturgis v. Mortimer Enterprises)
  • Represented Union Carbide in a case involving its patent on ethylene oxide catalysts and processes for making ethylene oxide. Obtained a jury verdict in favor of Union Carbide and entry of a $153 million damages award. The Federal Circuit affirmed the judgment in Union Carbide’s favor and reversed a pre-trial ruling adverse to Union Carbide that had limited the scope of damages presented to the jury. The favorable appellate ruling exposed the defendant to substantially higher damages and the case settled favorably thereafter. (Union Carbide v. Shell Oil Co.)
  • Obtained summary judgment on all claims, which was affirmed by the Federal Circuit, on behalf of Johnson & Johnson’s Ortho-McNeil in an ANDA litigation over Topamax, a multi-billion dollar anti-convulsant drug (Ortho-McNeil v. Mylan)
  • Secured judgment in Johnson & Johnson’s Alza Corporation’s favor in dispute over the inventorship and ownership of the patent, patent infringement case, on a liposome-based drug delivery system for the chemotherapy drug, Doxil® (Szoka v. Alza Corporation)
  • Represented Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Laboratories in a seven-week jury trial in an action asserting that Bayer’s gelcap product infringed McNeil’s patent; obtained a jury verdict of infringement against Bayer and an injunction leading to the removal of Bayer’s product from the market (McNeil v. Bayer Corporation)
  • Obtained motion to dismiss, which was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in representing Johnson & Johnson’s Sequus Pharmaceuticals in an action brought against it for conversion and tortious interference of a license agreement related to patents and related patented technology regarding multi-million dollar liposome-based technology (lnfuturia Global Ltd. v. Sequus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.)
  • Represented Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon in patent infringement action involving endoscopic surgical devices and surgical staplers; case settled favorably shortly after a Markman ruling (Ravo et al. v. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.)
  • Represented a leading manufacturer in successfully negotiating resolution of patent infringement claim dispute resulting in extremely favorable terms for the client
  • Represented leading drug manufacturer regarding patent issues involving development ­stage pharmaceuticals
  • Represented not-for-profit organizations in successful negotiation of copyright licenses
  • Represented client in successful negotiation of cease and desist agreement in trademark dispute
  • Represented client in successful defense against claim of patent infringement prior to filing of complaint
  • Represented preeminent publishing company in successfully negotiating settlement of copyright infringement dispute over songs used in Michael Jackson production

*These matters occurred before joining Barnes & Thornburg.

 
EXPERIENCE
Presentations
  • “Advanced Techniques & Best Practices,” Practising Law Institute, Chair, October 2019
  • “Advanced Techniques & Best Practices,” Practising Law Institute, 2018
  • “Ethical Issues in Patent Litigation,” Ethics in the Practice of Intellectual Property Law, John Marshall Law School, 2017
  • “Ethical Issues in Patent Litigation,” Practising Law Institute, 2014-2017
  • “Branding in the Entertainment Industry,” Practising Law Institute, 2013
  • “Accounting for Attorneys,” Practising Law Institute, 2011-2012
  • “Assessing the Patent Damages Landscape,“AICPA Conference, Practising Law Institute, 2011
  • “Permanent Injunctions in a Post-Ebay Arena,” Practising Law Institute, 2009

*These presentations occurred before joining Barnes & Thornburg.

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