John Schiltz represents plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes commercial cases across the nation. He has significant litigation experience in state and federal courts as well as arbitrations across a broad spectrum of practice areas including breach of contract, patent, trade secrets, antitrust, cryptocurrency, class actions, product liability, unfair trade practices, shareholder litigation, and other complex commercial disputes.
Schiltz has secured many landmark wins for his clients, who range from Fortune 100 companies, universities, and technology startups to small businesses, individuals, and inventors.
In a recent bet-the-company case, Schiltz represented LightGuide, Inc. in its successful willful patent infringement action against Amazon.com concerning projected augmented reality and warehouse robotics technology. Schiltz was instrumental in retaining venue against Amazon in the Eastern District of Texas, defeating Amazon’s later-filed declaratory judgment action (read more here), and guiding the litigation strategy through motion practice, claim construction briefing, and fact discovery. The case was dismissed when Amazon entered into a settlement agreement with LightGuide prior to Markman and the close of fact discovery and agreed to dismiss all three of its inter partes review petitions prior to any of them being instituted by the PTAB.
In a major trial victory, Schiltz won a $50.3 million jury verdict on behalf of Green Mountain Glass in its patent infringement lawsuit against Ardagh Glass, Inc., when a federal jury in Wilmington, Delaware found Ardagh willfully infringed upon Green Mountain’s patent No. 5,718,737 for technology that allows glass manufacturers to use recycled glass of mixed colors. This verdict ranked among the National Law Journal’s “Top 100 Verdicts of the Year”—it was ranked #34 overall and the 4th highest IP verdict of the year. Schiltz then helped protect the verdict on appeal, briefing and securing a full affirmance of the judgment at the Federal Circuit. A final payment of $64.5 million was later made to Green Mountain.
Schiltz currently represents The Research Foundation for The State University of New York against Inpria Corporation and JSR Corporation, alleging breach of contract, correction of inventorship, and various state law claims concerning the inventorship, ownership, and right to practice and license metal oxide EUV photoresist technology and intellectual property valued at $2.4 to $4.3 billion.
Schiltz joined Susman Godfrey after serving as a law clerk to the Honorable David M. Ebel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of the Virginia Law Review and the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. Prior to law school, Schiltz taught high school mathematics as a Teach for America corps member in Kansas City, MO.
Updated Oct 2024
