Concentration

Civil trial law, focusing on commercial and intellectual property litigation

Summary

Maria Wyckoff Boyce is partner in charge of the Houston office of Baker Botts, a senior partner in the litigation department, and a member of the firm's Executive Committee. She tries lawsuits in state and federal courts involving complex commercial disputes. Ms. Boyce also has extensive experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in intellectual property litigation, including numerous patent infringement and trade secret lawsuits. She recently arbitrated a significant environmental dispute for an energy company, tried a patent infringement case for a major computer company to a Delaware federal court jury and tried a commercial fraud case for a major software company to a Texas state court jury. Ms. Boyce also handles appeals in state and federal appellate courts. Her work has resulted in dozens of published opinions.

Ms. Boyce is married to Justice Bill Boyce of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals, Houston.

Representative Engagements

• Linn Energy, LLC – arbitration award involving multi-million dollar environmental claims
• Leading consulting firm – jury verdict involving misappropriation of trade secrets
• Sybase Inc. – jury verdict involving multimillion-dollar commercial fraud claims
• Reliant Energy, Inc. – lawsuits and jury verdicts involving commercial, trade secrets misappropriation, and securities and ERISA class action claims
• CenterPoint Energy – multiple jury verdicts involving commercial and personal injury claims
• Dell Inc. – patent infringement trial in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware
• BASF – lawsuits and jury verdicts involving commercial and employment claims
• Halliburton Company – lawsuits involving patent infringement and commercial claims
• Fair Isaac Corporation – lawsuit involving commercial fraud claims
• Leading pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturer – prosecution of several multimillion-dollar patent infringement lawsuits filed in the Northern District of California
• Leading pharmaceutical manufacturer – co-national counsel for litigation involving a major pharmaceutical product

Publications, Speeches and Presentations

Publications

• "Navigating Hypothetical Negotiations," Managing Intellectual Property, October 2008
• Product Liability Desk Reference: A Fifty-State Compendium, Aspen Publishers, Inc., New York, 2008
• "Custom Software Development Contracts: Litigation Issues and Best Practices for Contracting," Corporate Counsel Review, Vol. 24, No. 2, November 2005

Speeches and Presentations

• "What Every Trial Judge Needs to Know About Mandamus," Harris County Judicial Education Conference, San Antonio, August 2006
• "Ruling on Evidence in a High-Tech World," National Association of Women Judges Annual Conference, Houston, October 2005
• "Summing Up Summary Judgments," Advanced Civil Trial Law Conference, Houston, February 2005
• "Jury Trial Innovations," Advanced Civil Trial Law Conference, Houston, February 2004