Services
Experienced Patent Trial and Litigation Attorney
Corey spent decades litigating and trying patent cases for inventors, startups, and global tech companies. He has helped to bring well over a hundred cases to successful resolution, avoiding billions in alleged liability for defendants, and also generating hundreds of millions in settlements and verdicts for patentees. He has worked with some of the top firms and practitioners in the field, including at Jones Day, at Keker, Van Nest & Peters, and at Bunsow De Mory. And he has opposed, and won against, many top-tier firms with tremendous resource advantages.
Many claim or aspire to be trial attorneys. Corey has actually been involved in dozens of jury and bench trials, in every role from strategy and advice, to presenting and cross-examining dozens of witnesses, to lead trial counsel. He evaluates and prepares every case with an eye to trial story and what will matter to the factfinder. This is both more efficient, and more likely to provoke a successful resolution, even short of trial.
Patent Litigation
Corey’s law practice primarily involves patent litigation in the high technology space. He has been a core team member or lead counsel on every variety of such litigation: including defending clients like DirecTV, Google, Comcast, LinkedIn, and SanDisk from patent assertion entities; and protecting startups like NewRelic, Pure Storage, and Zscaler from competitor patent assertion campaigns. For the last eight years, Corey practiced on the plaintiff side, bringing funded (and unfunded) contingency litigations for individual inventor and smaller enterprise plaintiffs, against some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Samsung, Apple, Lenovo, Microsoft, Huawei, Cisco, Nintendo, and others.
Corey is available to apply his long experience to help inventive companies or litigation funders with patent litigation diligence, development, and strategy. He is also open to longer term engagements or associations with firms that have a portfolio of cases in need of proven, trial-focused litigation experience.
Technical Consulting
Corey has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (Computers), and was an accomplished working engineer for eight years prior to law school. This career experience, relatively unique among lawyers, has helped him to become particularly skilled and effective at the technical aspects of patent litigation: due diligence, infringement contentions and reverse engineering, code and design review, developing expert reports and testimony, and cross-examination of engineer and expert witnesses. He has also found particular success grounding damages claims in real-world technical benefits. He is available to consult with and help litigation teams develop their technical assertions (or defenses).
USPTO Proceedings
For three recent years, Corey was ranked among the most successful attorneys in the country at defending patents from inter partes reviews and ex parte reexaminations. He is available to work as as “backup counsel” with registered patent attorneys, drafting papers and arguing positions that can defeat challenges while preserving claim scope and value for litigation. And he is also in the process of becoming registered with the USPTO to operate as solo or lead counsel.
People
A Family Business
Corey Johanningmeier
Corey is proud to have found ways to practice law at the highest levels while keeping his family as important and centered as his career. He works extremely hard and has always been a top biller at firms. But having flexibility as to the scheduling of work hours, and economics that reward efficiency and good judgment rather than leverage and churn, mean that he can and does win cases without missing first days or campouts or recitals. He has often received positive feedback, from clients, co-counsel, and opposing counsel alike, for openly and affirmatively organizing litigation efforts around lawyer family and life obligations. Everyone should have a lawyer with motivation to be efficient and to bill less than may be strictly possible.
Michelle
Michelle is a music teacher who met Corey when he was an engineer, helped support him during law school, and still likes him as a lawyer.
Emmaline
Emmaline is 9 and in fourth grade. When she understands the just result of a case, it is aptly prepared for presentation to a judge or jury.
Eloise
Eloise is 5 and soon will start kindergarten. She is an excellent advocate for her views.
Case Studies
Representative Engagements
Contingent Patent Assertion
Vineyard Investigations v. E. & J. Gallo Winery
Representing soil scientist, viticulturalist, and inventor Dr. Paul Skinner in enforcement of a patent portfolio related to intelligent control of irrigation and chemical delivery in vineyards and fields. Prevailed in initial phases of ongoing litigation against Gallo, including defeating a patent ineligibility motion, defeating three inter partes reviews and subsequent reexamination requests, and winning favorable claim constructions. The case was prepared for trial and is currently on appeal from an adverse summary judgment ruling.
Multi-Venue Litigation
Ramot at Tel Aviv University Ltd. v. Cisco
Brought and led multi-venue litigation in Texas, Delaware, the U.S. Patent Office, and the Federal Circuit, enforcing a portfolio of high-speed optical communications patents on behalf of Ramot and its Tel Aviv University researchers. Among other victories, completely defeated nearly two dozen proceedings and appeals brought by Cisco to challenge patent validity, without a single patent claim being invalidated.
Patent Assertion Campaign
Theta IP v. Samsung, Motorola, Apple
Represented Theta IP in a patent infringement action against Samsung in the Western District of Texas relating to technology for power savings in cellular receivers. After defeating Samsung’s numerous dispositive motions, we achieved a very favorable resolution as the jury was headed to the courthouse.
Then brought and led Theta’s subsequent litigations against Apple in the Western District of Texas, and against Motorola and parent Lenovo in the Northern District of Illinois. Early victories included defeating Apple’s motion to transfer, winning all claim construction disputes, completely defeating Motorola’s inter partes reviews, and defeating challenges in two of Apple’s inter partes reviews.
Corey Johanningmeier 