Aaron P. Bowling

Aaron P. Bowling — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Bowling is an intellectual property litigator in Arnold & Porter's Chicago office, elected partner in December 2024 after joining the firm as counsel in November 2021 (firm bio; World IP Review). His practice spans patent and trademark litigation across athletic apparel and footwear, medical devices and biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, computer software/hardware, and digital music, with experience in district court, the Federal Circuit, the ITC, and the PTAB. Before Arnold & Porter, he was an attorney at Banner & Witcoff and clerked for Judge Jimmie V. Reyna on the Federal Circuit (Arnold & Porter bio).

His tracked docket is entirely defendant-side: he appears as backup counsel for Nike (defendant) in Lululemon USA Inc. v. Nike, Inc. Consistent with that, his web-searchable record is dominated by representation of operating companies — almost exclusively Nike — on both offense and defense. He has defended Nike against NPE assertions (e.g., Ortiz & Associates Consulting, LLC v. Nike, W.D. Tex. 2025; Pointwise Ventures LLC v. Nike, S.D.N.Y. 2026) and prosecuted Nike's patent claims against Lululemon in Nike, Inc. v. Lululemon USA Inc. (S.D.N.Y. 1:23-cv-00771), a knitted-footwear case in which a jury awarded Nike $355,450 in March 2025 but the court granted lululemon judgment as a matter of law on obviousness and vacated the award in March 2026 (IP Law Daily; Legal Era). He also argued Nike's IPR appeal to the Federal Circuit in Nike v. Lululemon Athletica Canada Inc. (No. 2024-2074), which was affirmed under Rule 36 in May 2026.

Bowling has substantial PTAB/IPR experience. He serves as backup counsel for Nike as patent owner in Skechers U.S.A., Inc. v. Nike, Inc. (IPR2025-00141, IPR2025-00150), and earlier was on the Banner & Witcoff team that won Nike IPRs against Skechers in 2018 (Banner & Witcoff release). Bar/education: J.D., George Washington University Law School; M.S. (bioengineering/biotechnology), Northwestern University; B.S. (molecular and cellular biology), University of Illinois; admitted Illinois (2013), the Federal Circuit, the Supreme Court of the United States, and N.D. Ill.; registered to practice before the USPTO.