Ryan Sullivan, Ph.D.

Ryan Sullivan, Ph.D., provides expertise in economics, finance, and statistics. With more than 30 years of experience, he applies his expertise to solving complex and challenging issues that organizations face in the competitive marketplace and the courtroom.

In the areas of litigation and disputes, Dr. Sullivan has wide-ranging experience with the economics of intellectual property and technology, technically demanding analyses of antitrust and competition, robust statistical modeling for labor and employment issues, and detailed quantitative analyses for securities and finance disputes.

In business analytics, Dr. Sullivan develops and implements state-of-the-art predictive models that provide reliable, evidence-based insights into business outcomes. These predictive models are implemented across various business challenges, including valuation, licensing, price optimization, promotional programs, business strategy, forecasting, and investing.

Dr. Sullivan is a recognized top U.S. economic expert by Intellectual Asset Management each year from 2014 to 2023. According to IAM, Dr. Sullivan “is a top-notch expert. He is incredibly smart, thoughtful, analytical and creative; he has excellent communication skills and a strong sense of integrity.” IAM further commented that the “outstanding academician is celebrated for his creative but rigorous, data driven approach and deep engagement with the questions at hand.”

Dr. Sullivan is often retained to provide expert testimony in high-stakes commercial litigation. He has provided expert testimony in more than a dozen cases, each with more than $1 billion in controversy. Dr. Sullivan has testified at trial in more than 30 cases and provided expert reports and deposition testimony in more than 100 cases.

Dr. Sullivan’s litigation-related work includes the following notable cases:

| Juno Therapeutics v. Kite Pharma: Dr. Sullivan worked on behalf of Juno Therapeutics and Sloan Kettering in patent litigation involving cancer immunotherapy. Juno, a subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Sloan Kettering claimed that Kite Pharma, a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences, infringed their patent. The technology at issue involved genetically engineering T-cells to fight cancer, which is known as CAR-T therapy. Economic issues included the contribution of the patented technology to Kite’s allegedly infringing product, availability of potential non-infringing alternatives, stage of development of licensed technology, competitive relationship between Juno and Kite, financial harms and benefits from the use of the patented technology by Kite, and market analysis of related license agreements.

| Lucent v. Microsoft: Dr. Sullivan worked on behalf of Microsoft in patent litigation involving video coding technology. Lucent Technologies and Multimedia Patent Trust claimed that the Microsoft Windows operating system and Xbox 360 infringed their patent. Dr. Sullivan evaluated the contribution of patented technology to Microsoft’s products and the effects of licensing through patent pools. Economic issues included patent pools, cross-licensing, FRAND rates, software cost structure, and reasonable royalties.

| Abbott Cardiovascular v. Edwards Lifesciences: Dr. Sullivan worked on behalf of Edwards Lifesciences in patent litigation involving devices used to treat mitral regurgitation, where the mitral valve leaflets do not close tightly and allow blood to backfill into the heart. Abbott claimed that Edwards’ PASCAL device violated several of its patents and was harming sales of its competing MitraClip product. Abbott sought injunctive relief and economic damages. Economic issues included examining products in the structural heart device marketplace, market definition, competition, pricing dynamics, existing license agreements, and product substitution patterns at the customer level.

| Ritz v. SanDisk: Dr. Sullivan worked on behalf of plaintiffs in antitrust litigation involving NAND flash memory and related patent licensing. Dr. Sullivan’s evaluation of price injury included analysis of licensing revenue, apportionment of licensing revenue to disputed patents, and implementation of an econometric model relating product pricing to competitor costs and other factors. Economic issues included market definition, market power, class definition, apportionment, and pass-through of costs.

| T-Mobile v. Huawei: Dr. Sullivan worked on behalf of T-Mobile in trade secret litigation involving Huawei’s misappropriation of T-Mobile’s robot testing system for mobile devices. Dr. Sullivan evaluated T-Mobile’s actual losses and Huawei’s unjust enrichment resulting from Huawei’s misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract. Economic issues included the technology’s contribution to profits, supply agreements, product sales, and product costs.

Dr. Sullivan’s academic work uses advanced statistical methods to evaluate the predictive ability of econometric models. He has published economic research in top-tier, peer-reviewed academic journals—including the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Econometrics, and the International Journal of Forecasting—as well as articles on the economics of intellectual assets. He served as an invited member of the Economics Leadership Council at the University of California, San Diego. In this role, he guided the Department of Economics faculty on applying economic science in private industry.

Dr. Sullivan previously served as the Treasurer and an officer on the Board of Trustees for San Diego Zoo Global, now known as the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

Dr. Sullivan established Quant Economics in 2006 and Intensity in 2014. He joined Secretariat in 2023.