Ce Li

Ce (“Charles”) Li is a counsel in the firm’s Global Trade and Intellectual Property practices. Dr. Li advises clients on U.S. export controls and sanctions compliance, and in connection with national security reviews of foreign investment in the United States. He has assisted clients in export classifications, license applications, compliance programs, internal investigations, voluntary disclosures, import law and customs regulations, and deal support (due diligence).

As a member of Goodwin’s IP practice, he helps clients protect patent and trade secret rights and defend against various IP infringement claims in federal courts and before the U.S. International Trade Commission. Dr. Li is experienced in post-grant proceedings (e.g., inter partes reviews or IPRs) and has rendered patentability, non-infringement, and invalidity opinions. Dr. Li also assists clients in IP rights counseling, licensing and procurement, including patent portfolio development and NPE strategies.

On global trade matters, Dr. Li has assisted numerous clients across a diversity of industries to classify their products and technologies under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Dr. Li’s understanding of encryption software, background in semiconductor, and experiences in computer hardware and electronics-related technologies make him especially valuable to technology companies seeking to understand how these important national security laws and regulations impact their cross-border transactions. Dr. Li also advises on national security-related foreign investment reviews conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), including the evolving CFIUS regulations addressed to “critical technologies.” In these areas, Dr. Li merges a broad base of scientific knowledge derived from multiple advanced degrees with practical regulatory and litigation experiences, delivering exceptional value to Goodwin’s clients.

In his IP practice of almost twenty years, Dr. Li has represented a wide variety of industrial, commercial and individual clients, in both IP litigation, patent prosecution, and transactional matters. IP litigation forums in which he has been involved include U.S. district courts, the International Trade Commission (ITC), and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Client sectors served by Dr. Li span a wide spectrum and include semiconductor equipment, microelectronic devices and packaging, integrated circuit (IC) designs, high-speed memory systems, storage networks and apparatuses, medical devices (including bio sensors) and diagnostic equipment, telecommunications equipment and network infrastructure, mobile marketing, security and authentication, consumer banking and credit cards, investment banking (securities, derivatives and structured financing), railroad equipment, online and retail gaming, gaming, and social networking. Apart from advising clients of American and European origins, Dr. Li has successfully served, and takes pride in serving, clients from Asia.

Representative matters and recent experiences include:

• Represented a digital currency company in an OFAC investigation and negotiated a favorable settlement.
• Prepared and submitted applications to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to secure export licenses for technology companies to continue selling to Huawei after its Entity List designation.
• Represented a patent owner in its multi-year saga against a smart phone manufacturer and won a $300M jury verdict of infringement.
• Represented a glucose sensor manufacturer against a competitor’s infringement action and secured summary determination of non-infringement.
• Represented a large semiconductor equipment supplier to challenge multiple asserted patents in 12 IPRs filed in quick succession, forcing the patent owner into settlement favorable to our client.
• In re Certain Electronic Imaging Devices, ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-850. Represented a major Chinese mobile phone manufacturer (ZTE) against patent infringement claims brought by FlashPoint Technology, Inc. and secured a ruling of non-infringement with respect to all the patents asserted against ZTE.

Prior to joining Goodwin in 2007, Dr. Li was a patent law clerk at Hunton & Williams LLP.

Dr. Li is the co-inventor of “Method for Monolithically Integrating Silicon Carbide Microelectromechanical Devices with Electronic Circuitry,” U.S. Patent Nos. 7,170,141 (Jan. 30, 2007) 7,615,788 (Nov. 10, 2009).

Dr. Li was named the "Rising Star" from 2014 to 2017 by Super Lawyers magazine in Washington, DC, and was nominated as an outstanding lawyer in the ITC 337 survey by U.S. Legal 500. He is a key member of Goodwin’s IP Litigation team, which has been recognized by Law360 as “Intellectual Property Practice Group of the Year” in 2014-2017 and named by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce as a Top-Ten Team for 337 Investigations.

• “A Nonvolatile Semiconductor Memory Device in 6H-SiC for Harsh Environment Applications,” IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 24, No. 2, February 2003.
• “The Monolithic Integration of 6H-SiC Electronics with 6H-SiC MEMS for Harsh Environment Applications,” a documentation of technical proceedings of the 2003 Nanotechnology Conference, February 2003.
• “Ashing of Photoresist with a Plasma-based Source of Hyperthermal Neutral Atoms” at the American Physical Society Plasma Physics Division Annual Meeting in November 1997.
• “Understanding Alice: Step 1 Of Mayo Analysis At PTAB,” Law360, New York, October 17, 2014.
• Super Lawyers Magazine – Washington, DC “Rising Star” for 2014-2017.