Proactive, aggressive and disciplined IP litigation counsel
Kristin Noel is an experienced intellectual property (IP) trial lawyer. She has litigated IP rights for a variety of technologies, from telecommunications to stem cells, water fixtures to software, industrial machinery to drug targets. With extensive experience in high-stakes competitor disputes, and having tried cases to verdict, her practice includes:
- Patent litigation
- Trademark litigation
- Lanham Act litigation
- Trade secret litigation
- Copyright litigation
- Trade dress litigation
Kristin believes that front-end preparation dictates back-end results. Her team is proactive, aggressive and efficient. That discipline is one of the reasons Quarles has been named among the country’s most feared law firms in litigation by BTI Consulting.
Kristin is a former national chair of the firm’s IP Litigation team.
Experience in Action
- Litigating complex IP disputes, including patent, trademark, trade dress, trade secret and copyright disputes.
Successes
- Lead liability trial counsel obtaining a $44.1 million and $5.4 million verdicts in two patent cases between telecom competitors.
- Local counsel obtaining a $940 million jury verdict in a trade secrets case for a leading software company.
- Lead trial counsel for pharmaceutical company obtaining freedom-to-operate verdict for a company’s $11 billion drug target.
- Lead trial counsel for the world’s leading stem cell company, in a patent dispute with a licensor that claimed that the client’s core technology practiced dozens of its patent claims. Obtained a judgment that none of the client’s accused processes practices any of the asserted claims.
- Lead trial counsel for a vaccine manufacturer in a contract dispute. Obtained a jury verdict of no liability against our client and a $1.9 million judgment on our client’s counterclaims.
- Trial counsel for a major technology transfer institution in the enforcement of a patent license agreement with a pharmaceutical company. Obtained a jury verdict in favor of our client. Successfully argued appeal defending judgment and further obtaining an order that a judgment be entered, giving the client title to related IP.
- Co-lead trial counsel successfully defending an injection mold manufacturer in a lawsuit involving a competitor’s claims of patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation claims.
- Obtained dismissal with prejudice of patent lawsuit on 101 grounds for leading healthcare software company. Successfully argued appeal defending judgment.
- Obtained dismissal with prejudice of patent lawsuit on invalidity grounds for leading healthcare software company. Affirmed on appeal.
- Obtained voluntary dismissal with prejudice, with no compensation paid, of patent action filed against major medical device company.
- Obtained voluntary dismissals with prejudice, with no compensation paid, of multiple patent actions filed against leading electronic healthcare record software company.
- Obtained voluntary dismissal with prejudice, with no compensation paid, of copyright action filed against leading electronic healthcare record software company.
Capabilities
Professional Recognitions
- Best Lawyers in America® "Lawyer of the Year" (2021, 2025: Litigation - Intellectual Property)
- Best Lawyers in America® (2018-present: Commercial Litigation, Litigation – Intellectual Property)
- IAM Patent 1000 Wisconsin (2021, 2023, 2024: Litigation)
- Wisconsin Super Lawyers® (2009-present: Intellectual Property Litigation)
- In Business Magazine "40 Under 40" (2005)
Professional & Civic Activities
- American Bar Association, member
- State Bar of Wisconsin, member
- Seventh Circuit Bar Association, member
- American Intellectual Property Law Association, member
- Western District of Wisconsin Bar Association, member
- The Noel Compass Foundation, former board member
- Nyumbani Village International Inc., former board member
- Madison Symphony Orchestra, Symphony with a Twist Committee, former member
- Leadership Greater Madison, former member
News & Insights
Education
- Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 1996)
- Northwestern University (B.A., 1993)
Bar Admissions
- Illinois
- Wisconsin
Court Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit
- U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Trial Bar
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas