KAREN BOYD

PARTNER

boyd@turnerboyd.com
650.521.5938

• Education, Clerkships, and Languages

  • California State University-Northridge, B.A. Environmental Biology, 1990

  • University of California, Los Angeles, M.A. Molecular Biology, 1993

  • University of California, Berkeley Law School, J.D., 1996

  • Law Clerk to the Honorable Paul R. Michel, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

• Admissions

  • Supreme Court of the United States

  • State Bar of California

  • United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

  • United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

  • United States District Court, California (all Districts)

  • United States District Court, Texas (Eastern and Western Districts)

  • United States District Court, Colorado

  • United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan

• Publications and Presentations

  Presentations

  • Recognizing and Reducing Implicit Bias, Turner Boyd’s Seventh Annual California MCLE Program (2023)

  • Global Litigation Strategies and Developments, panelist (with Alyssa Caridis and Yar Chaikovsky), Advanced Patent Law Institute (2023)

  • Trial Advocacy Evidence Workshop, volunteer faculty, Stanford Law School (2022)

  • The Business of Patent Litigation: ethical issues in funding, holding companies, and litigation strategies, panelist (with Ragesh Tangri, Matt Powers, and Ed Reines), Advanced Patent Law Institute (2021)

  • Trial Advocacy Depositions Workshop, volunteer faculty, Stanford Law School (2021)

  • Diversity and Inclusion, moderator (with Clem Roberts, Kelvin Vivian, Nikki Vo, and Sue Wang), Advanced Patent Law Institute (2020)

  • Section 101 after MyMail & Berkheimer, moderator (with David Donoghue and Steven Jedlinski), SAS Forum on NPE Litigation (2019)

  • Opinions and Pre Litigation Due Diligence – Effectively Considering Joint and Contributory Infringement (with Dominick Conde, Ryan Connell, Aaron Fahrenkrog, and Adrian Looney) American Intellectual Property Law Association Mid-Winter Institute (2019)

  • Effective Mediation of Technology Litigation (with Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen (CAND), Frank Burke, Shella Deen, Sara Petersen Graves, and John V. Picone) Santa Clara County Bar Association (2018)

  • How to Make Your Mediation Advocacy More Effective (with Judge Laurel Beeler (CAND), Mark LeHocky, Joseph Esposito, Lisa MacVittie, Keith Harrison, and Tom Knapp), ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Spring Conference, San Francisco (2017)

  • Oddball Defenses in Patent Cases (with Fabio Marino), 17th Annual Advanced Patent Law Institute: Silicon Valley, East Palo Alto (2016)

  • How Can I Be Sexist? Some of my Best Friends Are Women! Identifying and Mitigating Unconscious Bias in the Law, TurBo CLE Day, Redwood City (2016)

  • Moderator, Judges’ Panel (with Judges Rebecca Pallmeyer (ILND), Richard Andrews (DED), and James Donato (CAND)), 16th Annual Advanced Patent Law Institute: Silicon Valley, East Palo Alto (2015)

  • Broadest Reasonable Interpretation vs. Ordinary and Customary Meaning (with Brian Clarke), Bay Area In-house Medical Device Association, Redwood City (2015)

  • Great SCOTUS, Batman! The Term the Supreme Court Got an IP Bee in Its Bonnet, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, Berkeley (2014)

  • Expert Best Practices After the 2010 Amendments, ABA CLE Workshop, Berkeley (2014)

  • Communication Across Genders, by invitation to the legal department at Juniper Networks (2013)

  • Privilege: Don’t Believe Everything You Think, Adv. Pat. Law Inst., East Palo Alto (2012)

  • Mock Hearing on Unsettled Issues of Pleading, Jurisdiction, and Venues, AIPLA, San Francisco (2011)

  • Microsoft v. i4i mock hearing, Silicon Valley IPLA, Palo Alto (2011)

  • Hot Topics Panel – Defense 2.0: New Strategies for Reducing Patent Risk, Santa Clara (2011)

  • False Marking: True AND False, Adv. Pat. Law Inst., East Palo Alto (2011)

  • Moderator, Women in IP: Pearls of Wisdom to Improve Negotiation Skills, Palo Alto (2010)

  • Enablement, Written Description, and Indefiniteness-Oh, My!, Adv. Pat. Law Inst., East Palo Alto (2009)

  • Developments in Section 112 Law: The Enablement and Written Description Requirements as Applied to Pharma and Biotech Patents, Practicing Law Inst., New York (2009); San Francisco (2010)

  • Moderator, Women in IP: Communication Tips for Success, Palo Alto (2009)

  • Declaratory Judgment Jurisdiction: Case Law and Practical Application, Adv. Pat. Law Inst., Santa Clara (2008)

  • Cost Control Strategies for Patent Litigation, Adv. Pat. Law Inst., San Jose (2007)

  • Biotechnology Litigation: Tips and Strategies, Law Seminars International, San Francisco (2007)

  • Mythical Doctrines of Patent Law, Adv. Pat. Law Inst., San Jose (2006)

  • Recent Supreme Court Cases in Patent Law, American Chemical Society National Meeting, San Francisco (2006)

  • Claim Construction From An Appellate Perspective, Practicing Law Institute: How to Prepare and Conduct Markman Hearings, San Francisco (2006)

  • Advising Clients on Crucial Areas Affected by Merck v. Integra, 6th Advanced Forum on Biotech Patents, San Francisco (2006)

  • Research Tools, The Supreme Court, and the Patent Infringement “Safe Harbour,” Am. Assn. Pharm. Sci. National Biotechnology Conference, Boston (2006)

  • Best Practices and Winning Legal Strategies for Managing Patent Portfolios, ReedLogic Patent Leadership Conference (2006). “Written Description and Section 112: Impact on Biotech Patenting,” Adv. Pat. Law Inst., San Jose (2005)

  • Merck v. Integra-the Supreme Court Speaks on the 271(e)(1) “Safe Harbor,” Latest Thinking on Attacking/Defending Patents in the US Pharmaceutical Market, Henry Stewart Conference Studies, San Francisco (2005)

  • Non-obviousness and the Inherency Doctrine, Current Controversies, Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences Biotechnology and Intellectual Property, Stanford Law School (2005)

  • Choice of Forum: Differences In How Federal Circuits Apply Daubert, Effective Financial Expert Testimony Seminar, Law Seminars International, San Francisco (2004)

  • Biotech Research Tools and Reach Through Royalties, Adv. Pat. Law Inst., San Jose (2003)

  • Moderator, Juries Gone Wild: Should Patent Validity Be Decided by Juries?, Biotechnology Industry Organization Annual Meeting, San Francisco (2004)

  • Moderator, Festo: Views from the Bench One Year Later, Biotechnology Industry Organization Annual Meeting, Washington D.C. (2003)

  • Moderator, Festo: Views from the Bench, Biotechnology Industry Organization Annual Meeting, Toronto (2002)

  Publications

  • Karen Boyd, Merck v. Integra and the Patent Infringement Safe Harbor, in Chemistry and Patent Law: U.S. Supreme Court Decisions 2000-2020, ACS Symposium Series, American Chemical Society, Richard Bone, ed. (2020)

  • Karen Boyd and James Beard, Patent Marking: True AND False, in 11th Annual Silicon Valley Advanced Patent Law Institute, Advanced Patent Law Institute (2010)

  • Karen Boyd and Lisa Schneider, Recent Federal Circuit Cases on Written Description and Enablement, in Developments in Pharmaceuticals and Biotech Patent Law 2009, Practicing Law Institute (2009)

  • Karen Boyd, Mediation of Patent Disputes Offers More Options Than Litigation Does, Los Angeles Daily News (Oct. 17, 2006)

  • Karen Boyd, When is patent infringement not patent infringement? Merck v. Integra and the “safe harbour,” Journal of Commercial Biotechnology (2006)

  • Karen Boyd, Nonobviousness and the Biotechnology Industry: A Proposal for a Doctrine of Economic Nonobviousness, 12 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 311 (1997)

Karen Boyd is a founding partner of Turner Boyd Seraphine, representing clients in intellectual property disputes, focusing on patent disputes. Her clients have ranged from solo inventors and universities to Fortune 100 companies, in technologies from pharmaceuticals to consumer electronics to medical devices. She has significant trial experience, but always hopes to resolve disputes much more quickly for clients. She also serves as a mediator, early neutral evaluator, and an arbitrator in intellectual property disputes, serves on the mediation panel for the Northern District of California, and previously served on the mediation panels for the Federal Circuit and the International Trade Commission.

Before founding Turner Boyd, Ms. Boyd was a partner at Fish & Richardson, where she practiced from 1997 to 2007. She was law clerk to Judge Paul Michel at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit from 1996 to 1997 and taught appellate procedure with Judge Michel at George Washington Law School. She has taught Patent and Trade Secret Law at Hastings College of the Law (2003), and Biotechnology and Chemistry Patent Law at Berkeley Law School (2002 to 2009).

Ms. Boyd has been listed in the Northern California “Super Lawyers” publication every year since 2007. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, the “Super Lawyers” publication ranked Turner Boyd as the top small intellectual property law firm in California-until it outgrew the “small” category. Since 2018, Ms. Boyd has been recognized by Best Lawyers® in the fields of intellectual property litigation, patent law, and trade secrets law. In 2022, this publication also named her “Lawyer of the Year” for Trade Secrets in San Francisco. Ms. Boyd is a frequent speaker on patent law and other legal issues and has presented lectures or moderated panels at dozens of conferences.

An active supporter of the community, Ms. Boyd is a director on the California State University Foundation, the president of the board for the Aurora Singers (a community choir based in Palo Alto), a past president of the Berkeley Law Alumni Association, the vice president of the Singer’s Council for the Schola Cantorum (an auditioned Bay Area choir), and a past president of the board of directors for the Ronald McDonald Charities Bay Area.