Peter Sullivan is a partner in Foley Hoag’s Intellectual Property, Litigation, and International Litigation & Arbitration Departments. He focuses his practice on intellectual property and complex commercial matters.
Peter has litigated complex commercial matters in courts throughout the country. These matters include maritime environmental liability disputes, product liability actions, construction disputes, contract disputes and workplace exposure cases. The product liability cases have involved automobiles, pharmaceuticals, industrial machinery, maritime cranes, and construction materials. The workplace exposure cases have involved substances such as asbestos, mercury, benzene and metals such as cadmium and beryllium. He advises clients on litigation matters in tribunals in foreign jurisdictions, teaming up with local lawyers in the jurisdiction.
Peter has also litigated patent and trade secret matters in district courts across the United States, at the ITC and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. A registered patent attorney, Peter also appears on behalf of clients before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, including in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). He has litigated matters involving video compression technology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, gas turbine engines, electrical switchgear, RFID tracking technology, portable email communication systems, GPS systems, military simulator technology, agricultural products, specialty chemicals and sunscreen technology. Peter also litigates licensing disputes concerning intellectual property. He is the author of the chapter on licensing litigation in Robert L. Haig’s Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts, Fourth Edition, published by Thomson Reuters, a leading treatise for commercial litigators in New York.
Peter is an experienced practitioner in international arbitration, focusing on cases involving complex technical subject matter where his technical background allows him to understand quickly the technical and scientific principles involved in the matter. He has acted as counsel in patent and trade secret licensing disputes in the pharmaceutical industry. Peter also has represented clients in complex commercial and construction matters involving pollution control installations, industrial plant facilities, electrical generating facilities, waste treatment facilities and commercial construction projects. He has represented parties before panels of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and the American Arbitration Association, and under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules.
Peter advises clients on intellectual property rights in connection with start-up company formation, corporate transactions, licensing arrangements and litigation exposure. He advises owners of famous brands in the luxury goods and food and beverage industries on trademark and design patent issues to help them obtain and enforce these rights. Peter has appeared for trademark clients in court and in proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).
Peter is also very active in professional associations. He has filed amicus briefs on behalf of bar associations on important issues of intellectual property law in the United States Supreme Court, the Federal Circuit and other appellate courts.
