Helmerich & Payne’s Debra Stockton Takes It to the Limit in Patent Litigation Victory
Helmerich and Payne International Drilling learned in 2020 that a direct competitor and sometimes business partner was suing H&P claiming that it had infringed on eight of Nabors’ patents related to technology on its automated drilling products and sought hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The plaintiffs sought an immediate preliminary injunction to stop H&P’s sale of the disputed products and asked the federal judge for an expedited jury trial. Working under intense pressure and deadlines, H&P GC Debra Stockton aggressively led H&P’s discovery efforts, initiated an investigation into Nabors’ own automated drilling technology and filed counterclaims of infringement against Nabors. This case is an incredibly rare example of an accused party "flipping the v" and vindicating itself from baseless allegations of wrongdoing while at the same time exposing the aggressor party as the real wrongdoer. Citing this extraordinary courtroom success, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook named H&P, Stockton and Baker Botts as one of two finalists for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
