Chris Scharff is a Shareholder at McAndrews who focuses on all areas of intellectual property. Since the enactment of the America Invents Act, Chris’ practice has included a particular emphasis on inter partes review (IPR) challenges of patents before the U.S. Patent Office. Chris has represented clients in over 65 IPR proceedings in the last five years, resulting in over a dozen early-stage non-institution wins on behalf of patent-owner clients, as well as numerous favorable final decisions or settlements for both patent-challenger and patent-owner clients. Patexia named Chris the 31^st most active IPR practitioner in 2018, the 45^th best-performing IPR practitioner the same year, and the 22^nd most active IPR practitioner in 2017. He is a frequent speaker and author on IPR topics.

Chris’s practice also includes patent litigation through discovery, trial, and appeal. Chris is a member of the bar of both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Chris regularly represents both plaintiffs and defendants in disputes ranging from small cases to ones involving hundreds of millions of dollars. He has represented clients in patent disputes on technologies as varied as orthopedic implants, infusion pumps, spinal surgery devices, GPS hardware, chemical products, advanced materials, automotive technology, food processing, and wireless communication technology. In addition, Chris also regularly assists clients with patent prosecution, freedom-to-operate opinions, trademark portfolio management, IP due diligence for mergers and acquisitions, licensing negotiations, and other matters.