Gareth DeWalt

Representative patent litigation matters:

• Rovi Corporation. v. Comcast Corporation: Defended Comcast in numerous patent litigations initiated by Rovi Corporation in California and New York district courts and the International Trade Commission relating to set-top box hardware, software, cloud streaming, and storage technology. Guided technical aspects of case and achieved findings of no violation, voluntary termination, or clearance of design-arounds of 19 patents by the ITC. Presented technical expert at trial, resulting in a finding of patent invalidity. Drafted motions that resulted in pre-trial dismissal or summary judgment on 7 patents. Drafted appeal that resulted in Rule 36 affirmance of patent invalidity in the Federal Circuit.
• Sprint Commc’ns Co. v. Comcast Cable Commc’ns, LLC: Represented Comcast in patent infringement cases against Sprint Communications, encompassing over 30 patents asserted in federal courts in Kansas, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Led offensive case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania resulting in an infringement finding. Directed technical aspects of case in the District of Kansas, including preparing multiple experts for trial presentation on infringement and invalidity. Resolved the dispute in the District of Kansas, in which Sprint sought close to $1 billion in damages.
• Riverbed Technology, Inc. Silver Peak Systems: Represented Riverbed Technology in offensive and defensive patent infringement suits in federal court in Delaware against competitor relating to WAN optimization hardware and software. Second-chaired trial, which ended with a favorable settlement.
• Realtime Data, LLC v. Morgan Stanley, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Southwest Securities, et al.: Represented the nation’s largest investment banks in patent infringement suit in federal court in New York initiated by Realtime Data relating to compression and transmission protocols for financial data. Led legal defense of case, including drafting successful transfer motion and summary judgment motion, in which the court held that the banks did not infringement as a matter of law. Drafted appeal brief resulting in affirmance of summary judgment at the Federal Circuit.
• Versata Software, Inc. v. Sun Microsystems Inc.: Represented Sun Microsystems in patent infringement, trade secret, and breach of contract suit brought by former vendor relating to computer sales software. Assisted with trial in the Eastern District of Texas which resulted in full finding for Sun, including noninfringement and invalidity of asserted patents, no trade secret misappropriation, and no breach of contract.

Representative patent counseling matters:

• Comcast Corp.: Spearheaded offensive portfolio analysis for Comcast, identifying patents to use as leverage in potential litigation. Performed freedom-to-operate analyses for new products relating to set-top box software and drafted noninfringement opinions. Responded to demand letters from intellectual property holders.
• Confidential client: Advised client on patent portfolio development including identifying areas for additional continuations to increase scope of patents, avoid prior art, and position for offensive litigation.

Representative trade secret litigation matters:

• Pfizer Inc. Regor Therapeutics Inc., Qilu Regor Therapeutics, Inc., Xiayang Qiu, and Min Zhong: Represented Pfizer Inc. in trade secret case in federal court in Connecticut against former employees alleged of taking trade secret information relating to small molecule diabetes drugs. Managed all aspects of case with particular emphasis on technical analysis and strategy. Resulted in favorable settlement for Pfizer.
• Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Pfizer Inc.: Defended Pfizer against allegations of trade secret misappropriation in federal court in Pennsylvania related to hiring of former Merck scientist. Secured settlement of case prior to trial as part of settlement of worldwide legal proceedings.