Matthew C. Gaudet

Matthew C. Gaudet is a trial lawyer who focuses on patent cases, and he is Vice Chair of the firm's Intellectual Property Practice Group. Over the last 25+ years, he has defeated many dozens of patents through trials, summary judgment rulings and IPRs, and he regularly appears before the Federal Circuit. In the past year alone, he won:

• A complete defense verdict in a jury trial for Roku Inc. in April 2024 in the Western District of Texas before Judge Alan Albright, defeating allegations that Roku’s streaming video players infringe two IOEngine LLC patents, for which IOEngine sought $318 million from the jury (IOEngine was backed by litigation financiers and had won two previous jury verdicts against other defendants who were represented by other law firms);
• A complete defense verdict in December 2023 for Cisco Systems, Inc. in the re-trial of the $2.7 billion claim brought by plaintiff Centripetal Networks against Cisco in the Eastern District of Virginia, resulting in a total victory against all 11 patents asserted in the case;
• An affirmance by the Federal Circuit in October 2023 of a complete defense victory for SonicWall, Inc. against plaintiff Finjan, Inc., after he led the team that defeated all 10 asserted patents in the Northern District of California through a combination of summary judgment and Daubert rulings (Finjan had collected approximately $300 million in prior litigation against other defendants); and
• A complete defense victory through summary judgment in October 2023 for Fortinet, Inc. in the Northern District of California in a case brought by plaintiff 1440 Sports Management against Fortinet and the PGA TOUR, relating to Fortinet’s sponsorship of a PGA tournament event. 

Mr. Gaudet is also serving as lead counsel for other major technology companies, including Verizon, Microsoft, Comcast, and Cox Communications.  On the plaintiff’s side, he has collected over $100 million for patent holders.

Mr. Gaudet was previously 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."  For each of the last several years, he has been listed amongst the top 500 litigators in the country in Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America.  Every year since 2009, he has been included in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business 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, other examples 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. The win was affirmed by the Federal Circuit.
• 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.  The win was affirmed by the Federal Circuit.
• 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.

Recent examples 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:

• 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, and the Federal Circuit affirmed.
• 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.

Recent examples of patent cases Mr. Gaudet won for the defendant by forcing voluntary dismissals in return for no payment by his clients include the following:

• SLS Manager Technologies v. Microsoft Corp., Case No. 6:23-CV-00519-AM (W.D. Tex.)
• Implicit, LLC v. SonicWall Inc., Case No. 1:23-cv-01001-MN (D. Del.)
• Implicit LLC v. Fortinet, Inc., Case No. 5:17-CV-04467-BLF (D. Del; following transfer from E.D. Tex.)
• 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.)