McKool Smith has built an esteemed reputation, especially in the areas of commercial and intellectual property litigation in which it reigns as the go-to firm in Texas. It has a network of strongholds in the state, with offices in Dallas, Austin, Marshall and Houston, while also steadily expanding its presence in New York and Los Angeles. The key practitioners for patent litigation include
Samuel Baxter, William LaFuze, Mike McKool and Steven Pollinger.
The firm’s intellectual property practice has been historically well known for its work representing plaintiffs in patent litigation, and while that has since changed, it continues to bring a substantial number of cases on behalf of clients. Recently, in a high-profile win, Marshall-based Sam Baxter represented Optis Wireless Technology and other subsidiaries of PanOptis against Apple, which resulted in a $300 million jury award in a patent infringement trial before the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Baxter is also representing Blitzsafe in its lawsuits against numerous car manufacturers and retailers, alleging patent infringement claims related to automotive interface technology, which allows users to connect external third-party audio and multimedia devices to their stereos to play the content through the car stereo system and speakers. On the defense side, in March 2022, Dallas-based litigator David Sochia represented Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company against Semiconductor Connections, and successfully secured a favorable claim construction ruling from the district court that was upheld at the federal circuit. Austin’s Joshua Budwin is litigating against Qualcomm in a patent infringement lawsuit brought on behalf of ParkerVision. The patents at issue are related to the client’s transmitter and receiver patents. In addition, Budwin is defending two market-leading clients in the telecommunications industry, Ericsson and AT&T, in a six-patent lawsuit related to 3G, 4G, 5G and MSS patents filed originally by Hitachi and Bosch, but later divested to IPCom, now the plaintiff in this matter. Trial is currently pending.
In the commercial space, Houston partner Joshua Newcomer and Christopher Johnson of the New York office represent the trustee for Millennium Lender Claim Trust in three separate proceedings. The case in California state court against KPMG, the auditor, was settled confidentially. The trustee alleged that KPMG misrepresented the company’s financial condition, leading to a $1.7 billion loss to lenders. Currently, two other cases brought against bank defendants allege they are liable for state blue-sky law violations, fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation, aiding and abetting liability, and fraudulent transfers. The Delaware case is awaiting trial in 2022, and in New York, the team handled the appeal of a ruling received prior to their representation. Newcomer is also handling a matter in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas, defending Zachry Construction Corporation and its related entities against several alleged claims, including breaches of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting and fraudulent transfers, among others.
In another high-profile case, this time in the commercial space, Baxter partnered with Lewis LeClair to represent the State of Texas in its biometric identification lawsuit against Meta f/k/a Facebook. The State alleges violations of Texas’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifiers Act, specifically that the social media platform took biometric identifiers of Texans for commercial purposes without their informed consent, disclosed the identifiers to other companies, and failed to destroy the collected information within a reasonable amount of time. Additionally, Texas also alleges the defendant participated in false, misleading and deceptive acts, violating the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act. The case is currently in jurisdictional discovery, as Meta argues that the jurisdiction is improper. In addition to commercial matters, LeClair also handled an antitrust case on behalf of SC Innovations alleging that Uber’s predatory pricing and anticompetitive conduct drove the company out of business. The parties resolved the matter amicably in 2021.
