Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton

Firm overview:

Kilpatrick’s Patent Practice group helps clients develop, protect, and capitalise on one of their most critical assets—their patent portfolios. In the US, and overseas, Kilpatrick helps clients secure, safeguard, and promote patent rights to maintain a competitive advantage. The practice enables clients to identify and minimise infringement risks, and exploit patent rights opportunities, such as joint ventures, recapitalisations, mergers, acquisitions, licenses, and technology transfer agreements.

With more than 290 patent professionals worldwide, Kilpatrick helps clients navigate the patent landscape both offensively and defensively, while working across many different technology areas, including telecommunications; mechanical and medical devices and systems; manufacturing; electrical engineering; software development and business methods; and biotechnology, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.

Team overview:

Many of Kilpatrick’s attorneys both litigate and prosecute patents, and all have a science or engineering background—often with extensive experience in the technologies the firm’s clients want to protect. The team has expertise across a wide range of industries, assisting the firm in helping some of the most innovative companies in the world, from startups to global corporations, create and maintain enforceable, meaningful patent portfolios that become valuable offensive and defensive business assets.

Key contacts in the firm include Steve Borgman, in Houston, leader of the Mechanical and Medical Device Patent practice; Charles Calkins, in Winston-Salem, with a focus on the corporate and transactional aspects of intellectual property; Kelvin Catmull, in Denver, a patent prosecution lawyer; Nicoletta Kennedy, in DC, a patent prosecution lawyer and co-leader of the Chemistry and Life Sciences practice; and Brenda Holmes, in Atlanta, a patent strategist and co-leader of the Electronics and Software practice group.

In January 2025, the firm strengthened its Chemistry & Life Sciences team with the addition of Melissa Harwood, who joined the Seattle office as a partner. Previously at DLA Piper, Harwood has a diverse practice that encompasses patent prosecution, counselling and litigation, and she has particular experience representing biotech, therapeutics and chemical industry clients.

Key matters:

Non-Contentious:

• Kilpatrick assisted Cerner Innovation of Kansas City, a company that develops software to help healthcare organisations deliver care, bill patients, and handle insurance, with a US patent application for Decision Support For Managing Mental Health Conditions.
• The firm assisted Lendbuzz, of Boston, Massachusetts, a consumer finance company, with a US patent application for Specialised Artificial-Intelligence Architectures For Predicting User Behaviour With Respect To An Obligation.
• Kilpatrick assisted Amazon Technologies, of Seattle, Washington, with a US patent application for Method and System For Eyebox Expansion In Display Systems.

Contentious:

• Robotic Pool Cleaners and Components Thereof, Inv. No. 337-TA-1326.

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton represented complainant Zodiac Pool Systems and Zodiac Pool Care Europe in an International Trade Commission (ITC) investigation asserting two patents covering innovative robotic pool cleaners, featuring improved efficiency, performance, and user experience of the devices.

In the ITC investigation, Zodiac sought to exclude several Wybotics and Aiper entities from importing and selling robotic pool cleaners and their components that infringe Zodiac’s patented technology in the United States. In parallel, Kilpatrick partnered with counsel in France, representing Zodiac in a French litigation involving the European counterpart patent to one of the US patents asserted in the ITC investigation. The investigation settled favourably for the client.

Kilpatrick’s team included partners Steven Moore (CA) and Aarti Shah (DC).

• Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings v Ravgen (Federal Circuit Case Nos. 2023-1342 and 2023-1345).

Kilpatrick represents Labcorp, the appellant in an appeal of two inter partes review proceedings, IPR2021-00902 and IPR2021-01054, related to US Patent No. 7,332,277, for sample preparation for non-invasive prenatal genetic testing. This case is pending before the Federal Circuit. Tina McKeon (GA) is the lead Kilpatrick lawyer in the proceedings.

• 360Heros v GoPro, No. 1:17-cv-01302 (D. Del.).

Kilpatrick lawyer Mehrnaz Boroumand Smith (CA) led the team defending GoPro in a patent infringement lawsuit in the District of Delaware filed by 360Heros relating to camera holders for 360-degree video cameras. 360Heros accused three GoPro products of infringing its ’019 patent.

In Delaware, Boroumand Smith and her team won summary judgment of non-infringement for two of the accused products. They also prevailed on Daubert motions seeking to exclude the testimony of 360Heros’ damages expert and damages-related testimony from 360Heros’ technical expert. Nonetheless, the case went to trial, and after seven years of hard-fought litigation, a jury delivered a unanimous verdict that GoPro’s Omni camera holder (the only remaining accused product) did not infringe any of the asserted claims of 360Heros’ patent and that the patent claims were invalid.

Partners Dario Machleidt (WA), Byron Chin (CA) with lawyers Andrew Saul (GA), Kate Geyer (WA) were also on the Kilpatrick team.

Clients:

Adidas, Cox Communications, Cree Lighting, ExThera Medical, GoPro, Hisense, Kaotica, Labcorp, Nano Precision Medical Company, Reynolds American, Zap Surgical, Zodiac Pool, Zoom Video Communications.