PRACTICE AREA
For many businesses, intellectual property is among their most valuable assets. Patents, trade secrets, trademarks, software, proprietary technology, and brand identity often represent years of investment and can play a significant role in a company’s growth, valuation, and competitive position.
Dorwart helps clients create, protect, enforce, defend, and monetize intellectual property assets. We represent financial institutions, technology companies, startups, manufacturers, energy and petrochemical businesses, and nonprofit organizations in matters involving patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, licensing, and intellectual property litigation.
Our work spans the full lifecycle of intellectual property, from portfolio development and registration to licensing, enforcement, litigation, and strategic defense against infringement claims.
Dorwart works closely with clients to understand their technology, products, business objectives, and competitive landscape. Whether we are helping a startup build its first patent portfolio or defending a company against a significant infringement claim, our focus remains the same: protecting business value and creating practical solutions.
Our lawyers have substantial experience handling both the transactional and litigation sides of intellectual property matters, allowing us to evaluate opportunities and risks from a broader business perspective.
The most successful intellectual property strategies align legal protection with business objectives. Our lawyers regularly help clients evaluate how intellectual property affects acquisitions, financing transactions, product development, competitive positioning, licensing opportunities, and long-term growth.
This business-oriented approach allows us to provide advice that extends beyond registration and litigation and focuses on the broader value of intellectual property assets.
Many law firms focus primarily on either obtaining intellectual property rights or litigating them. Dorwart does both.
Our lawyers advise clients throughout the entire lifecycle of intellectual property – from developing patent portfolios and protecting valuable brands to defending infringement claims and enforcing intellectual property rights when necessary. Because we regularly see how patents, trademarks, and other IP assets are challenged in litigation, we help clients make strategic decisions that strengthen and maximize the long-term value of their intellectual property.
That litigation perspective has also proven particularly effective in defending clients against patent assertion entities, also known as “patent trolls”. Rather than treating these cases as routine patent litigation, we focus on identifying the legal, technical, procedural, and economic weaknesses in the plaintiff’s claims and using those weaknesses to change the economics of the case.
Torus Ventures v. Behringer: Persuaded the plaintiff to voluntarily dismiss its claims after demonstrating that, even assuming infringement for the sake of argument, it could not establish recoverable damages.
Sunflower Licensing v. NGL Partners: Obtained a voluntary dismissal after filing a motion to dismiss for improper venue, eliminating the need for further litigation.
These matters illustrate Dorwart’s practical approach to patent litigation: identify the pressure points that matter most, develop a strategy around them, and achieve business-focused results rather than simply litigating every issue.
Dorwart represented a major regional financial institution in a patent infringement action filed in the Eastern District of Texas by a patent troll. The plaintiff simultaneously sued 16 financial institutions and demanded $2.8 million from our client alone.
Patent trolls often rely on the high cost and uncertainty of patent litigation to pressure defendants into paying settlements or licensing fees, regardless of the underlying merits of the claims.
Rather than following that path, Dorwart pursued an aggressive defense strategy designed to change the economics of the case. We filed a motion to dismiss supported by detailed technical arguments demonstrating that our client’s systems did not infringe the asserted patents, challenged the plaintiff’s damages theory, and put the plaintiff on notice that we intended to seek attorneys’ fees if appropriate. Although our client was similarly situated to many of the other defendant banks, our approach significantly increased the plaintiff’s litigation risk and reduced the economic incentive to continue pursuing our client.
Before the court ruled on our motion, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed all claims against our client without any settlement payment, licensing agreement, or other concession.
Several of the remaining defendant banks ultimately entered into license agreements with the plaintiff. Although the court later denied similar motions to dismiss in the consolidated litigation, our client had already been dismissed from the case. The matter demonstrates Dorwart’s ability to identify and exploit weaknesses in patent assertion cases to achieve exceptional business outcomes for clients.
Established and managed a comprehensive patent program for an emerging technology company beginning in 2012. Over a five-year period, approximately 95 patent applications were filed with a success rate exceeding 90 percent. By 2017, the company had achieved a valuation of several hundred million dollars.
Obtained a substantial judgment following a jury trial in a trade secret dispute between competing petrochemical lubricant distributors. The court also awarded attorneys’ fees to the client.
Successfully represented Tulsa’s Gathering Place before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, defending the Gathering Place trademark and securing abandonment of a competing trademark application.
Successfully defended multiple patent infringement actions in federal court, obtaining dismissals without clients paying settlements, licensing fees, or other amounts demanded by patent assertion entities.
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