Mike Rueckheim
Partner
Chair, Silicon Valley Litigation Practice
Michael (Mike) is a one of the country’s top patent litigators with a high-level background in technology and the Chair of the Litigation Practice for the firm’s Silicon Valley office.
Mike has led teams for approximately 200 patent matters including in district courts, the PTAB, the Federal Circuit and the ITC. Mike is a first-call resource for many technology companies for their most significant and complex patent and related matters. Mike routinely counsels clients in the semiconductor, memory, telecom, medical device, networking, and virtualization spaces and has a strong focus on standards-based issues, crafting jury-friendly themes and litigating in Texas and Delaware courts.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Mike obtained nearly ten years of experience in industry, at Motorola focusing on trouble-shooting issues with high-tech instrumentation such as plasma etchers (as a semiconductor process technician) and in oil, gas and environmental labs focusing on mass spectroscopy and related instrumentation (as an analytical research chemist).
Key Matters
Some of the experience represented below may have been handled at a previous firm.
- Represented a leading semiconductor memory company in multiple patent matters based in Texas Courts, the PTAB and Federal Circuit with technologies targeted at memory module architecture.
- Represents multiple firewall and cybersecurity companies in patent matters pending in Texas and Delaware Courts, including the first multi-district litigation for Eastern District of Texas Judge Gilstrap.
- Represented a technology client in multiple patent matters based in an Illinois Court, the PTAB, the Federal Circuit, the Eastern District of Texas and the ITC. Illinois jury trial was a competitor case involving two patents relating to wireless and battery technology. Obtained complete jury trial verdict/win on all issues, including an award of treble damages, attorneys’ fees costs and permanent injunction. Court (in a post-trial opinion) stated: “This case was not close. [Defendant] lost on every issue at trial after less than two hours of jury deliberation.” Also obtained related wins from IPR stage and from ITC hearings (on different patents).
- Defended a large multinational information technology company in a multi-patent litigation pending in the Northern District of Texas, with accusations relating to high-speed technologies.
- Defended a large multinational information technology company in an Eastern District of Texas patent litigation, with accusations relating to manufacturing software techniques.
- Represented four major multinational technology defendants jointly in IPR and appeal; defended one client in an underlying Delaware patent litigation. Case involved accusations relating to memory techniques, reducing probe traffic and cache coherency concepts.
- Defended a major multinational technology company in an Eastern District of Texas patent litigation, with accusations relating to translating virtual addresses in a system having multiple instruction pipelines.
- Represented a global leader in cloud and digital technology in an IPR and appeal, as well as Delaware patent litigation. Case involved accusations relating to networking techniques for RAID memory systems.
- Defended a leading electronics, appliances and mobile devices company in a Western District of Texas patent litigation, with accusations relating to standard essential patent issues and Bluetooth frequency hopping selection of communications channels.
- Defended a major multinational technology company in a multi-patent litigation pending in the Eastern District of Texas, with accusations relating to processor architecture concepts, including SIMD floating point coprocessor techniques and memory applications.
Pro Bono
Mike is dedicated to pro bono service and has helped individuals with regards to many issues including, mortgage/eviction disputes, fair housing, trusts, custody, and asylum matters. Mike also donates his time as a legal volunteer at the Marin County law library multiple times a year.
Michael Rueckheim is highly knowledgeable and experienced in all facets of patents and patent litigation, which he uses to achieve great results. He is personable, proactive, responsive and open to hearing thoughts on the proposed approach and strategy.
IAM Patent 1000