Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Jackson Walker announced that Jose Villarreal has joined its Austin office as a partner focusing on intellectual property litigation. His practice includes patent litigation and counseling on IP portfolio development,
Fresh off their third trial defense win in a row in the Eastern District of Texas, Nicholas Mathews and Erik Fountain are transferring their intellectual property litigation talents to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. They are the latest in a string of partner losses at McKool Smith this summer.
After a decade of serving her country as the first regional director of the Southwest Office for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Hope Shimabuku jumped at the opportunity to again create something new when she led the opening of Finnegan's Dallas office this month. And the elite global IP firm would’ve been hard-pressed to find someone better to be boots on the ground. The Texas Lawbook visited with Shimabuku about her legacy at the USPTO and her aspirations for Finnegan in Texas.
After a nearly weeklong trial, a Marshall jury found a group of Chinese tech companies owe $27 million for infringing four patents related to creating and selling 3D printers. U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap presided over the trial.
Jeff Cody, Norton Rose Fulbright’s global and U.S. managing partner, said IP is one of the firm’s three core pillars.
Intellectual property lawyers Joshua Budwin, Richard Kamprath, Kevin Burgess, and John Campbell are bringing a new boutique powered by Big Law veterans to the market. “I tell my kids if you want to be truly successful you’ve got to work for yourself," Budwin said.
A year or so ago, former U.S. District Judge Alan Albright realized he was ready to make the next — likely the final — move in his long career in the world of patent and intellectual property litigation.
“I started really missing being a trial lawyer and the practice,” Albright told The Texas Lawbook in an interview Tuesday. “I'd watch during trials and lawyers would do something, and I would be old and grumpy and I would text my clerks: ‘They should have done this,’ or ‘That’s stupid.’”
Alan Albright was appointed to the federal bench in 2018 and quickly implemented local rules and procedures that turned his courtroom into a preferred venue for patent disputes. He stepped down from the role last month.
After Rob Vartabedian brought on Marc Katz and his labor and employment team from DLA Piper in February, he told The Texas Lawbook he was “a little exhausted by expansion.”
But that was six months ago. On Monday, Vartabedian Katz Hester & Haynes announced it is bolting on an intellectual property litigation practice with the addition of a trio of partners from McKool Smith.
Texas’ reputation as the nation’s top venue for patent disputes hasn’t faded, according to a new report from Lex Machina that shows a remarkable 40.4 percent of all patent litigation in the country from 2023 through 2025 was adjudicated in the state.
U.S. District Judge Alan Albright significantly reduced the damages award from $9.2 million to $1 million in favor of GlobalFoundries, ruling that the plaintiff’s damages model was legally unreliable.
A federal jury in Marshall returned a unanimous verdict Wednesday in favor of AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Ericsson and Nokia, finding they did not infringe on three patents, denying the plaintiffs' $436 million request. The three disputed patents directed quality of service flow, control resource set configuration and small cell enhancements.
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