The practice

1. District court, either side of the caption

Patent litigation in federal district courts across the country, for clients ranging from near-startups to some of the world's most valuable technology companies. Some of those cases are brought and some are defended, which means the arguments made on one side have already been answered from the other.

2. The written record comes first

The work started on the other end of a patent's life, in prosecution, drafting or supervising hundreds of applications before ever litigating one. That is why the file wrapper is the first thing read rather than the last. Every narrowing an applicant made to get the patent granted is permanent, public, and available to be used years later.

3. Nine months inside a company

A secondment as in-house IP counsel at T-Mobile covered portfolio development, managing outside counsel, working directly with inventors, and weighing offensive against defensive strategy with a budget attached to the answer. The view from that chair is different, and it does not leave you.

4. The Patent Office is also a venue

Some patent fights happen at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board rather than in a courtroom, in a proceeding called an inter partes review, which asks whether the patent should have been granted at all. Multiple such reviews, five of them argued in person, plus covered business method proceedings and ex parte reexaminations. That path runs on a different clock and a different budget than a district court case.

5. And there is an appeal after that

Briefing and oral argument at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the court that hears patent appeals from everywhere. The argument in Buckman Laboratories v. Solenis is in the court's public recordings, so it can be listened to rather than described.

6. Judges already argued before

Courtrooms differ from one another more than people expect, and knowing a particular one is worth something on the day.

• Lucy Koh
• Rodney Gilstrap
• Vince Chhabria
• Leonie Brinkema
• Jon McCalla
• Catherine C. Blake
• Mary Pat Thynge
• Susan van Keulen
• Jan DuBois
• Philip Gutierrez
• B. Lynn Winmill

7. Technologies the cases have turned on

Two engineering degrees are the reason this list can be read rather than translated.

• Cryptography, encryption and digital security
• Two-factor and multi-factor authentication
• Telecommunications
• Software
• Imaging and encoding
• Chemistry and materials
• Blockchain and digital assets

8. Not only patents

Trademark and copyright disputes, proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, and transactions in which intellectual property is what is actually being bought, sold or licensed.