Meredith Martin Addy and Robert P. Hart, co-founders at litigation and intellectual property law firm AddyHart P.C., were featured presenters at this year’s IPWatchdog Patent Masters Litigation 2021 Program, held June 7–10, 2021 online.
On Tuesday, June 8, Hart was a panelist on the topic of “Litigating 5G and the Internet of Things,” with David Djavaherian of PacTech Law, Kurt M. Kjelland of Qualcomm, and Eric Tautfest of Gray Reed. The panel was moderated by IPWatchdog founder and CEO Gene Quinn.
On Wednesday, June 9, Addy, a nationally recognized authority on practicing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, participated in a panel on the topic “Alice & Mayo: Dissecting CAFC and District Court Handling of § 101 Absent Congressional Intervention.” Addy was joined on the panel by Paul R. Michel, formerly Chief Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Frank Angileri of Brooks Kushman, and David G. Henry of Grey Reed. Judge Michel delivered a keynote for the first section of the panel; Judge Susan Braden of the US Court of Federal Claims delivered a keynote for the second section. The panel was moderated by IPWatchdog’s Quinn.
On Thursday, June 10, Hart was invited to be a commentator on the panelists’ discussion in the Patent Masters Litigation section on the topic of “Billion-Dollar Patent Verdicts: How, Why and Will the Federal Circuit Let Them Stand?” a conversation between John S. LeRoy of Brooks Kushman, Alison Aubry Richards of the Global IP Law Group, Christopher Freeman of litigation finance firm Burford, and Sharon A. Israel of Shook, Hardy & Bacon. The panel was moderated by Quinn.
Meredith Addy co-founded AddyHart P.C. in January 2019 with long-time colleague Robert P. Hart. She has handled more than 100 appeals to the Federal Circuit along with more than 80 cases in US district courts, and she has testified to the US Congress on the state of patent law and the Federal Circuit. Addy has also held leadership positions at several AmLaw 100 law firms. Addy has received multiple 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 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. Hart’s corporate law experience includes counseling companies on entity formation, compliance and corporate governance, securities filings, transactional matters and mergers and acquisitions.