Lex Machina Lists Fish & Richardson as Most Active Firm for Defendants and at the PTAB

Lex Machina recently released its 2022 Patent Litigation Report, which identifies trends in federal district court, in federal courts of appeals, and at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The report placed Fish & Richardson at the top of the list of firms representing defendants in patent litigation, as well as the list of the most active firms at the PTAB.

In the area of patent litigation defense, Lex Machina found that Fish topped the list by a wide margin, having represented defendants in almost twice as many matters as the next-most-active firm. In total, Fish represented defendants in 669 matters from 2019 to 2021. The firm's geographical reach was unmatched as well - Fish was present in 38 districts, more than any other firm on the list.

"Roughly half of our firm is litigation-focused, and that’s led to a true depth of trial experience," said Fish & Richardson President and CEO John Adkisson in a Law360 story covering the report. "Our litigators are always in the courtroom trying patent cases, and the results of the survey bear that out."

The report also identified Fish as the most active firm at the PTAB, again by a wide margin. From 2019 through 2021, Fish appeared in 471 trials, over 175 more than the next firm on the list.

In an interview with Law360, Post-Grant Practice Co-Chair Karl Renner commented on the group's broad experience base: "The practice our litigation team brings forward is really well-informed and experienced in each of the forums, and that ends up being really helpful to us. It helps us understand how to navigate when decisions like Fintiv come down and how to think about how to approach the total defense."

Practice Co-Chair Dorothy Whelan attributed much of the firm's success to a balanced practice conducted on behalf of both petitioners and patent owners. "Doing all the patent owner work makes us better petitioners, and doing all the petitioner work makes us better patent owner representatives. There’s a real synergy there because you’re seeing the proceeding from both perspectives," Whelan said.

Kurt Glitzenstein, chair of the firm's national litigation group, noted that that synergy is present across Fish's litigation practice. "Fish's litigators work on both sides of the aisle, representing clients as both plaintiffs and defendants. This ensures our defensive clients always have the benefit of the strategic insights their attorney has gained representing plaintiffs, and vice-versa."