Alan L. Whitehurst

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Alan L. Whitehurst — Patent Litigation Summary

Specialty / focus. Whitehurst's practice is centered on complex electronics and telecommunications patents. His firm bios identify 5G, LTE, WCDMA, CDMA, Wi-Fi, speech coding, and video compression as core technical areas, with additional experience in microprocessors, semiconductors, software, e-commerce, and life sciences, and he litigated more than 30 telecom cases over roughly two decades (a veteran of the "smartphone wars"). His tracked docket is dominated by semiconductor fabrication and memory/driver patents asserted by Greenthread, LLC and Vervain, LLC—entities associated with inventor Dr. Mohan Rao—against chipmakers and automotive suppliers (Intel, Texas Instruments, Sony, Cirrus Logic, onsemi, NXP, STMicroelectronics, Continental Automotive, Monolithic Power Systems). He also handled EV-charging technology in the SemaConnect/ChargePoint dispute.

Side preference. He is predominantly a patent-owner-side litigator: 10 of 12 tracked appearances are plaintiff-side. The two defendant-side entries (Monolithic Power Systems v. Greenthread and Semiconductor Components Industries v. Greenthread) are declaratory-judgment actions in which he still represented Greenthread as the patent owner, so the NPE/patent-owner orientation is even stronger than the raw 10–2 split suggests. He has meaningful operating-company defense experience as well—SemaConnect, Samsung, AOL/MapQuest, DIRECTV—and advises clients on portfolio monetization, damages, and licensing.

Firm context and notable matters. He is Managing Principal of McKool Smith's Washington, D.C. office, which he joined as a principal in February 2021. Firm materials state he has recovered more than $85 million for Vervain and Greenthread since 2021. Prominent verifiable matters include representing Samsung against Apple in an ITC investigation that produced an exclusion and cease-and-desist order against Apple (reported as the first ITC exclusion order against Apple), Samsung v. Huawei in the Northern District of California over 22 3G/UMTS and 4G/LTE standard-essential patents with FRAND and antitrust counterclaims, and defense of SemaConnect against ChargePoint, where the district court issued a 70-page decision invalidating all asserted claims and entered judgment for SemaConnect; his firm bio states he argued and won the resulting Federal Circuit appeal (the affirmance itself was not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed). The tracked case data lists Greenthread LLC v. Intel Corporation under a firm name "Whitehurst, Harkness, LaPointe & Hammers," but public dockets for that case (W.D. Tex. 6:22-cv-01293) show McKool Smith as counsel; I could not verify that prior firm, so that detail should be treated as unconfirmed. One tracked case appears without a title.

PTAB / IPR experience. Extensive and recurring. He is consistently listed as lead counsel for the patent owner across numerous IPR/PGR proceedings, including IPR2023-00541 (Intel v. Greenthread), the onsemi IPRs (IPR2023-01242/01243/01244), the Cirrus/OmniVision IPRs (IPR2024-00017 through -00021), Monolithic Power's IPR2024-00468, Texas Instruments' IPR2024-00674, and Phison's PGR2024-00047/-00048 against Vervain. McKool Smith reported a 10-for-10 clean sweep for Vervain in 2025 IPR/PGR challenges by Phison and Kingston, with every petition denied institution; the team was Whitehurst, Christopher McNett, Christian Dorman, and Christopher Leone. He has also litigated § 315(b) privity disputes at the Board and on remand from the Acting Director. Chambers describes him as one of the top practitioners before the PTAB.

Bar / education. Duke University School of Law, J.D. (1997); B.S. in electrical engineering and M.S. in electrical and computer engineering, Duke University. Licensed in the District of Columbia (D.C. Bar No. 484873; D.C. admission reported since 2004) and registered to practice before the USPTO (Reg. No. 43,263). Ranked Band 4 in Intellectual Property Litigation, District of Columbia, in Chambers USA (2024 and 2026 editions).