Matthew C. Gaudet

is the co-chair of Duane Morris' Patent Litigation division. Over the last 20-plus years, he has defeated dozens of patents through trials, summary judgment rulings and IPRs, and he regularly appears before the Federal Circuit. He has served as lead counsel for major technology companies such as Cisco Systems, Verizon, ARRIS, CenturyLink, Seagate, Palo Alto Networks and SonicWall. He has also collected over $100 million for patent holders.

Five years ago, Mr. Gaudet was recognized as one of the top five IP lawyers under 40 in the country by Law360 (in which he was described as a “deadly cross-examiner”). The honor followed a year when two different district courts?one in East Texas, one in Delaware?cited his cross-examinations of opposing experts in rulings that sustained winning jury verdicts, with one judge describing his cross-examination as brilliant. From 2009 through 2019, Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business included Mr. Gaudet in its listing of leading IP lawyers in Georgia. Mr. Gaudet is also listed in Best Lawyers in America and the Top 100 of Georgia Super Lawyers. Before entering private practice, Mr. Gaudet served a judicial clerkship for the Honorable Susan H. Black of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University School of Law.

In addition to trial victories, examples from the last five years of patent cases Mr. Gaudet won through summary judgment for the defense include the following:

•Oyster Optics, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc., Case No. 2:16-cv-01301 (E.D. Tex.): Lead counsel for Cisco; won summary judgment from the bench of release and exhaustion against plaintiff’s claims accusing Cisco’s fiber optics products. Case is currently on appeal to the Federal Circuit by the plaintiff.
•United Access Technologies v. CenturyTel Broadband Services LLC et al, Case No. 1:2011- cv-00339 (D. Del.): Lead counsel for CenturyLink; won summary judgment of noninfringement against the plaintiff’s claims accusing CenturyLink’s ADSL services.
•Mobile Telecommunications Technologies, LLC v. Time Warner Cable Inc. et al, No. 2:16- cv-7 (E.D. Tex.) and No. 1:16-cv-00692 (D. Del.): Lead counsel for Time Warner, Charter, Verizon, Cox and ARRIS in these litigations. Won case dispositive claim construction and indefiniteness rulings against the plaintiff’s claims accusing 802.11-compliant products, resulting in stipulated dismissals by the end of 2017. The plaintiff had collected almost $100 million in prior litigation against other defendants.
•Garnet Digital, LLC v. Seagate Technology LLC, 6:13-cv-00655 (E.D. Tex.): Lead counsel for Seagate; won summary judgment of noninfringement against the plaintiff’s claims accusing Seagate’s memory devices.

Examples from the last five years of patent cases in which Mr. Gaudet won orders staying the litigation and then worked with Duane Morris’s IPR team to invalidate all asserted claims through the Patent Office include the following:

•TQ Delta v. Verizon, Comcast, et al, Case No. 1:15-cv-00611-6162-RGA (D. Del.): Lead counsel for Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner in these eight patent cases relating to MoCA. Invalidated all asserted claims of all patents in IPRs; IPR decisions are currently on appeal to the Federal Circuit by the plaintiff.
•Patent Asset Licensing, LLC v. WideOpenWest Finance, LLC and Knology of Florida, Inc., Case No. 3:15-cv-743-J-32MCR (M.D. Fla.): Lead counsel for Metaswitch, WideOpenWest and Knology. Invalidated all asserted claims of all three patents-in-suit in IPRs; IPR decisions are currently on appeal to the Federal Circuit by the plaintiff.
•Crossroads Systems, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., Case No. 1:14-cv-00148 (W.D. Tex.); Crossroads Systems, Inc. v. NetApp, Inc., Case No. 1:14-cv-00149 (W.D. Tex.): Lead counsel for Cisco and NetApp. Invalidated all claims of all four patents in IPRs, and the Federal Circuit affirmed. Cases dismissed, and clients received royalty-free license in 2018.
•Cirrex Systems LLC v. Verizon Services Corp et al, Case No. 1:13-cv-00921 (D. Del.): Lead counsel for Verizon, ARRIS and Tellabs/Coriant. Invalidated all asserted claims of all three patents in IPRs. Case dismissed, and clients received royalty-free licenses in 2018.
•SSL Services, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc., Case No. 2:15-cv-00433-JRG-RSP (E.D. Tex.): Invalidated all asserted claims in IPR, and the Federal Circuit affirmed. Case dismissed, and client received royalty-free license in 2019.
•Graywire LLC v. Ciena Corp. et al, Case No. 1:2008-cv-02993 (N.D. Ga): Lead counsel for Cisco and Ciena. Invalidated all asserted claims of all three asserted patents in inter partes re-examinations, and the Federal Circuit affirmed. Case dismissed, and clients received royalty-free licenses in 2018.

Examples from the last five years of patent cases Mr. Gaudet won for the defendant by forcing voluntary dimissals in return for no payment by his clients include the following:

•Vir2us, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., et al., Case No. 3:16-cv-06988 (N.D. Cal.)
•Parallel Networks LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc., Case No. 1:13-cv-02051 (D. Del.)
•Novocrypt LLC v. Seagate Technology LLC, No. 2:15-cv-227 (E.D. Tex.)
•Anza Technology, Inc. v. ARRIS Group, Inc., No. 3:16-cv-1261-BEN-AGS (S.D. Cal.)

Resume

Experience

•Duane Morris LLP
- Partner, 2005-present
- Associate, 2002-2004
•King & Spalding, Atlanta, Georgia
- Associate, 1998-2002
•United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- Law Clerk, Honorable Susan H. Black, 1997-1998

Honors and Awards

•Outstanding Georgia IP Litigator Award, Managing Intellectual Property, 2020

•Listed in IAM Patent 1000: The World's Leading Patent Professionals, 2019

•Listed in Best Lawyers in America in the area of Litigation - Patent, 2017-2020

•Listed in Best Lawyers in America in the area of Intellectual Property Law, 2011-2020

•Listed as a Patent Star in Managing Intellectual Property's IP Stars, 2013, 2015-2020

•Listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, 2009-2020

•Listed in Georgia Super Lawyers, 2013-2019

•Member, 2014 Managing Intellectual Property North America Awards: Top Patent Litigation Practice in the Southern United States
•Top 100 Georgia Super Lawyers, 2013
•Georgia Super Lawyer Rising Star in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2012
•Listed in Georgia's Best Lawyers, 2012
•Named one of Law360's Five IP Lawyers Under 40 to Watch, 2011

Civic and Charitable Activities

•Represented numerous individuals pro bono in appointed federal habeas corpus proceedings and in Section 1983 inmate litigation, including multiple appearances before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and a jury trial in the Middle District of Georgia.

Selected Publications and Speaking Engagements

Selected Publications

•Co-author, Zombie Companies: When Businesses Die, Their Patents Live On [AT ISSUE], Daily Report, August 11, 2015

Selected Speaking Engagements

•Speaker, Follow the Money: NPEs and Pre-Litigation Considerations, Practising Law Institute's Patent Litigation 2010, Atlanta, November 8, 2010
•Speaker, Willfulness and Opinions of Counsel After Seagate, Practising Law Institute's Patent Litigation 2009, Atlanta, November 10, 2009
•Moderated a panel of IP practitioners in a one-hour discussion regarding trends and developments in patent litigation, Georgia Entertainment Law and Intellectual Property conference, November 12, 2008
•Speaker, Claim Construction and Proving Infringement, Practising Law Institute's Patent Litigation 2008, Atlanta, November 10, 2008
•Speaker, Appellate Issues in Patent Litigation, Patent Claim Construction 2008: The Advanced Legal Forum, February 27, 2008
•Panelist, KSR v. Teleflex Supreme Court Decision, State Bar of Georgia IP Section, June 2007
•Panelist, Major Upcoming Supreme Court Cases on Patent Issues, State Bar of Georgia IP Section, October 2006