Karen A. Jacobs

With more than thirty-five years of litigation experience, Karens practice focuses primarily on patent infringement litigation before the Delaware District Court. Karens trial experience as an IP litigator includes both lead counsel and co-counsel roles where she has secured favorable outcomes at the district court level, on appeal to the Federal Circuit, and through settlement negotiations. Karens clients cover a range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, life sciences, biotechnology, electronics, computer software, telecommunications, and consumer products. Her representative clients include Thermo Fisher, Meta, Instagram, Genentech, Biogen, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Siemens, Vanda Pharmaceuticals, and Sumitomo. In addition to handling patent disputes, Karen also has experience in a variety of other intellectual property and commercial litigation areas, including copyright, trademark, trade secret, unfair competition, and contract and licensing disputes. She has been recognized as an intellectual property law leader by Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America, Delaware Super Lawyers, Managing IP, and others. Karen has long been an activist in a variety of community activities and is a recipient of the Delaware State Bar Associations Community Service Award. In her support of health and wellness initiatives, Karen served for over 20 years as chair of the Delaware State Bar Association (DSBA) Professional Guidance Committee, which offers peer guidance and support to lawyers with practice-related or personal issues, and is a frequent speaker on lawyer wellness in this leadership role. She is also the co-chair of the Delaware Lawyers Assistance Fund and serves on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Regional Advisory Board of the Caron Treatment Center. In June 2023, she received the Alumni/Family Award at Carons 21st Annual Philadelphia Community Awards Breakfast. Karen is also an avid advocate of legal representation for the poor. She served as president of Delaware Volunteer Legal Services and as chair of the Combined Campaign for Justice, which benefits the three legal aid agencies in Delaware that serve low-income populations. She previously served as Legal Community Section Chair of the United Way of Delaware. She also volunteers with Big Brothers, Big Sisters as a mentor at a local Wilmington elementary school and at the Josephs Food Pantry at Congregation Beth Emeth, where she also serves on the Executive Committee and Chair of the Endowment fund. A longtime champion for diversity and a leader in the Delaware Bar, Karen previously served as chair of the DSBA Women and Law Section and is a member of the Multicultural Lawyers and Judges section. In 2009, Karen was the recipient of the organizations Womens Leadership Award, presented to a member whose character, strength, personality, achievement and activities in matters affecting women lawyers have served as an inspiration to and a model for women lawyers. In 2024, The Legal Intelligencer Legal Awards named Karen a finalist in the category recognizing the Best Law Firm Mentors in the Pennsylvania/Delaware region. At Morris Nichols, she served on firms Executive Committee from 2020 to 2023 and was formerly Practice Group Coordinator of the Intellectual Property Litigation Group.