Meredith Addy and Robert Hart, co-founding partners at litigation and intellectual property law firm AddyHart P.C., will be joined by AddyHart partner and patent litigator Charles “Chad” Pannell III as featured speakers and panelists at the second annual Patent Litigation Masters program, part of IPWatchdog’s Masters Symposia Series to be presented May 23 and May 24, 2022, at the Hyatt Regency Dulles in Herndon, Va.
One of the country’s leading appellate attorneys at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Meredith Addy co-chairs the event with IPWatchdog’s founder, president and CEO Gene Quinn, and David Henry, partner and patent attorney at Gray Reed.
IPWatchdog’s Patent Litigation Masters program will explore patent litigation in the most active federal district courts in the United States, at the US International Trade Commission (ITC), and in appeals to the Federal Circuit. It will present expert insights into special issues of importance, including damages, patent eligibility, standard essential patents, and injunctions.
Addy and her program co-chairs kick off the event at 9:00 a.m. ET on May 23, with a discussion of the current state of patent litigation in the US. Addy returns as a panelist for the afternoon session “Winning Alice and Mayo at the District Courts and on Appeal,” an exploration of district courts’ handling of patent eligibility cases caught in the Alice/Mayo framework, current trends at the CAFC, and cases pending petitions for certiorari at the US Supreme Court.
Before the evening’s reception, Addy and co-chairs Quinn and Henry host a keynote conversation with Judge Ryan T. Holte of the US Court of Federal Claims, who will share updates related to IP litigation.
Following opening remarks on the morning of Tuesday, May 24, from Addy and her co-chairs, AddyHart co-founder Robert Hart joins a panel to discuss “Mega Verdicts in US Patent Litigation: Willful Infringement, Exceptionality & PTAB Challenges.” Panelists will explore what conduct warrants a finding of willful infringement or supports a finding of exceptionality, when one finding is appropriate but not the other, whether the strategy of efficient infringement may need to be rethought if treble damages and/or attorneys’ fees could be awarded and affirmed on appeal, and how patent owners can deal with opportunistic challenges at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) after very large verdicts.
That afternoon, AddyHart partner Chad Pannell will speak on the topic of “Expert Witnesses: Choosing, Working with, and Examining an Expert in a Patent Case.”
Meredith Martin “Mimi” Addy co-founded AddyHart P.C. with longtime colleague Robert P. Hart in January 2019. Addy has handled more than 60 appeals to the Federal Circuit and more than 80 cases in US district courts; she has testified to the US Congress on the state of patent law and the Federal Circuit. She has held leadership positions at several AmLaw 100 law firms and has received numerous accolades, including being the only female attorney named to Band 1 for IP Law in Illinois from Chambers USA for multiple years in succession—as well as high rankings from Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and IP Stars. Addy has been named one of the Top 250 Women in IP from Managing IP and IPmetrics LLC, as one of the Most Influential Women in IP Law by IP Law360, as one of Law360’s Female Powerbrokers, and to the IAM 1000.
Robert P. Hart, co-founder of AddyHart P.C., is an experienced first-chair trial attorney with more than 30 years’ experience in private practice and as in-house counsel. He focuses his practice in corporate law and intellectual property trials and strategy. Licensed by the USPTO and the Canadian IP Office, Hart is former Chief IP Counsel for Harman International and before that was division IP counsel for a major semiconductor company. He has led and managed international patent and trademark cases in Germany, Japan, China, France and Italy, and advises on transactions including mergers and acquisitions. His corporate law experience includes counseling companies on entity formation, compliance and corporate governance, securities filings, transactional matters, and mergers and acquisitions.
Charles A. “Chad” Pannell III joined AddyHart P.C. as a partner in May 2020 with more than fifteen years as an outside counsel, most recently at an AmLaw 100 firm. He has extensive experience in managing all aspects of patent, trademark, and trade secrets litigation, from discovery to jury trials and appeals, for companies large and small. He has appeared before courts all over the United States, including federal district courts in California, Texas, Delaware, Georgia, Washington, and New York, as well as the US ITC and the US Court of Federal Claims.
AddyHart P.C. is a Platinum Sponsor of this year’s IPWatchdog’s Patent Litigation Masters program. More information and registration for is at IPWatchdog.com.