Hon. Gregory M. Sleet (Ret.) joined JAMS after serving 20 years on the bench of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, including seven years as Chief Judge. During Judge Sleet’s tenure on the District Court bench, he gained deep experience in a number of areas of complex commercial litigation, especially patent litigation involving pharmaceutical patents and a wide variety of other technologies. Judge Sleet presided over and resolved by pretrial ruling, trial, or settlement thousands of cases involving a wide variety of subject matter, including: intellectual property, antitrust, bankruptcy, class actions, business/commercial, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, products liability, and securities and tax. Judge Sleet focuses his national practice on mediations, arbitrations and neutral analysis (case evaluation, mock trial).

Before taking the federal bench in 1998, Judge Sleet acquired varied experience in civil and criminal litigation and corporate legal work. He served as the United States Attorney for the District of Delaware, as in-house counsel in the legal department of Hercules Incorporated, and as deputy attorney general handling major civil cases for the State of Delaware .Prior to that, he practiced law in Philadelphia for 14 years, six of those as an assistant public defender with the Defender Association of Philadelphia.

Judge Sleet is a frequent speaker on patent litigation. Select examples of speaking engagements include: RPX, the Rocky Mountain Intellectual Property and Technology Institute, the Sedona Conference, the USC Gould School of Law, the New York Intellectual Property Law Association’s (NYIPLA) symposium on patent litigation, the Practising Law Institute, and ACI.

ADR Experience

• Judge Sleet has served as an adjunct professor, teaching patent litigation, at Rutgers Law School, Widener University Delaware Law School and, most recently, Duke University School of Law. 
• Judge Sleet is a sought-after neutral evaluator and has handed many neutral analysis and mock trials or hearings in patent matters as well as complex business/commercial matters. 
• Judge Sleet’s deep knowledge of intellectual property combined with his years of experience on the federal bench have given him a national reputation for being able to resolve challenging, multifaceted cases.
• While on the bench, Judge Sleet often identified cases that would be ripe for settlement and worked with the permission and agreement of parties and counsel on a parallel settlement track to attempt to resolve matters before, and sometimes during, trial.

Representative Matters

• Antitrust & Competition
• Presided over multi-week jury trial, with extensive post-trial practice involving claims of various Sherman Act violations by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP); presided over numerous matters involving claims of monopolization by the misuse of patent rights
• While on the bench, handled a patent infringement and anti-trust violations dispute between global coffee maker companies resulting in dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction of the foreign-incorporated defendants
• While on the bench, presided over a jury trial involving a dispute among international sports organizations and domestic sports association regarding the alleged improper reorganization of professional sports tournaments including antitrust claims for violations of the Sherman Act, as well as state law claims for breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference
• Business Commercial
• Has served as arbitrator, mediator, and neutral evaluator in many different breach of contract disputes involving issues such as royalties, payment distribution, implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, rescission and restitution, and breach of previous settlement agreements
• Provided Neutral Analysis on a breach of contract matter involving  the transportation of crude oil from rail cars onto barges on for shipment to refineries
• Mediated dispute over a stock purchase agreement under which two companies were acquired from multiple sellers
• Mediated a matter against multiple parties for alleged civil contempt under Michigan law and negligence for failure to comply with subpoenas for records related to a vehicle rental
• Mediated a breach of contract agreement involving the failure to test new engine design for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval 
• Class Action & Mass Tort
• Mediated a putative class action concerning the alleged false advertising of milk products 
• Presided over numerous class action disputes in a variety of areas, such as securities fraud, actions brought on behalf of consumers and others; frequently presided over approval of final settlement of these matters
• Governmental & Public Agency
• While on the bench handled a claim by a Delaware corporation challenging Delaware’s unclaimed property audit methodologies used in calculating uncashed accounts payable and payroll checks for a 22-year period alleging violations of substantive due process, the takings clause, and the ex post facto clause for improper assessment of more than $1.3 million owed under the state’s Escheat Act. Though never formally confirmed, ruling believed to have provided impetus for changes in Delaware’s escheat practices
• Mediated a dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency 9EPA) and a trucking company that allegedly violated the Clean Air Act
• Mediated a dispute between a county in Pennsylvania and a private company with a government contract to run an early childhood education program; issues included the renewal of the contract as well as the effectiveness of the program 
• Intellectual Property
Patent

• Has handled many mock trials and neutral evaluations in Hatch-Waxman cases and is well-versed in handling patent infringement and validity disputes involving pharmaceuticals 
• As a neutral evaluator, has handled matters involving the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) as well as the Biologics License Application (BLA) to the to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• Provided Neutral Analysis for a matter involving patent inventorship
• Provided Neutral Analysis for a patent infringement case involving microprocessors and computing technologies
• Presided over numerous, frequently multi-week, ANDA trials involving a wide variety of pharmaceuticals, including: Copaxone (glatiramer acetate), the top-selling treatment for multiple sclerosis; Hemlibra, an important drug for the treatment of hemophilia; a drug for the treatment of schizophrenia; and many others
• Presided over many jury trials involving a wide variety of technologies, including: mechanical devices such as in-door refrigerator ice makers; auxiliary power units (small jet engines that power an airliner while it’s docked at the gate); a dispute between major manufacturers of vacuum cleaners over suction power claims; medical devices such as transcatheter heart valves; a seminal invention in the area of knee replacement; electronic devices, computer technology, software design, machines used in the television and film industry that enable the remote creation of content for television news and entertainment and theatrical films; the design of safety features involving products used by babies and toddlers; and the design of feminine napkins
• While on the bench, handled a patent infringement dispute under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) between two large biotechnology companies involving claims of improper attempts to commercialize biosimilar versions of the branded biologic cancer treatment drugs Avastin and Herceptin
• While on the bench, handled a patent dispute between major pharmaceutical company and generic drug manufacturer involving claims of infringement and counterclaims of noninfringement and invalidity of an erectile dysfunction medication
• While on the bench, handled a patent dispute involving alleged infringement of a patent for a method and system for processing payments for remotely purchased goods including detailed consideration and analyses of “abstract idea,” “inventive concept or contribution” and “machine-or-transformation test” concepts, and applicability of pre- and post-Alice caselaw
• While on the bench, handled a patent claim alleging infringement of vacuum seed metering technology by an agricultural equipment manufacturer, including arguments on obviousness and anticipation, indefiniteness, lack of written description and enablement
• While on the bench, handled a patent infringement action involving post-consumer glass recycling methods, including analysis of patentability, various infringement issues including willfulness, as well as defenses such as anticipation and obviousness
Trademark

• Mediated a trademark infringement dispute 
• Presided over jury trial in a false and misleading advertising and unfair competition action which resulted in a large award of compensatory and punitive damages and many other Lanham Act disputes
• While on the bench, handled an international trademark infringement matter involving Russian distiller claiming false advertising, false association, and trademark cancellation, including alleged violations of the Lanham Act and unfair competition laws, against large American purveyor of alcohol spirits
• Life Sciences
• Mediated action for trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract between two pharmaceutical companies related to, among other things, chemistry designs, chemical synthesis, purification methods, quality control methods, encoding designs, and proprietary software
• Provided neutral analysis for a commercial dispute between pharmaceutical collaboration partners in which one party claimed it was entitled to payment under the language of the governing agreement
• Member of a panel that arbitrated demand seeking redress for wrongful withholding of more than $37 million in payments owed under a settlement agreement involving  the termination of a licensing agreement for the development and commercialization of a heart failure medication between a U.S. biopharmaceutical company and one of the world’s largest health care pharmaceutical companies
• Chaired a panel that arbitrated a dispute over contract interpretation pertaining to an intellectual property, development, and manufacturing agreement between the parties related to subcutaneous enzyme technology
• Mediated claim of fraudulent misrepresentation and omissions that induced one party to enter into a Licensing Agreement with regard to patented compounds related to opioid side effects
• Multi-District Litigation (MDL)
• Presided over at least six MDL actions involving a variety of ANDA and other patent claims
• Securities
• While on the bench, handled a shareholder derivative action brought by corporation against its directors, alleging insider trading violations in violation of the prohibition of short-swing profits under the Securities Exchange Act, including claims of exempt transactions and retroactive applicability

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

• Completed Virtual ADR training conducted by the JAMS Institute, the training arm of JAMS
• Member, New York Intellectual Property Association (NYIPLA)
• Arthur Armitage Sr. Distinguished Alumni Award, Rutgers University, 2005 
• Named one of the “Fifty of the Finest” graduates of Rutgers University in its first fifty years, 2000
• Inducted into the Rutgers African-American Alumni Alliance (RAAA) Hall of Fame, 2019
• NJIPLA Jefferson Medal, 2019 (for exceptional contribution to the field of Intellectual Property)
• NYIPLA Outstanding Public Service Award, 2014
• Philadelphia IP Law Association Outstanding Achievement Award in the Area of IP, 2014
• Member, CPR Judicial and Technology Panels

Background and Education

• Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware 1998-2018
• Judge, 2014-2018
• Chief Judge, 2007-2014
• Judge, 1998-2007
• US Attorney, United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, 1994-1998
• Counsel, Hercules, Inc., 1992-1994
• Deputy Attorney General, State of Delaware, 1990-1992
• Private practice, Philadelphia, PA, 1983-1990
• Assistant Public Defender, Philadelphia, PA, 1976-1983
• J.D.; Rutgers School of Law; Camden, NJ; 1976
• Earl Warren Scholar
• B.A.; Hampton University; Hampton, VA; 1973