Alexander E. Harding

Alexander E. Harding — Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner (Washington, DC)

Focus and firm context. Harding is an associate in Finnegan's Washington, DC office, where his practice centers on patent litigation and PTAB proceedings. His technical background is in electrical engineering, and the firm bio describes his focus as electronic and industrial devices; the tracked matters bear that out — semiconductor fabrication and packaging (deep trench isolation, through‑silicon vias, SOI switching circuits, CMOS image sensors), automotive electronics, medical devices, and industrial materials/diamond compacts. He has worked before district courts, the ITC, the Federal Circuit, and (on a pro bono veterans matter) the Supreme Court. He joined Finnegan as a summer associate in 2018 and has been with the firm since; no prior firms appear in the record.

Side preference. The tracked docket is mixed but tilts defense‑side: 4 plaintiff‑side and 2 defendant‑side appearances, all in the Samsung Electronics v. Harbor Island Dynamic dispute, where Samsung (the operating company) is the IPR petitioner and the district court case in E.D. Tex. was stayed. That pattern matches the rest of his publicized work, which is predominantly representing operating companies as defendants or petitioners — Toyota against Intellectual Ventures, Samsung against Harbor Island Dynamic, and Kettenbach in a dental‑products patent and trademark suit. He has also represented patent owners/ complainants on the plaintiff side, including US Synthetic at the ITC and Koninklijke Philips against Boston Scientific. Net: primarily an operating‑company defense and IPR practice, with selective patent‑owner representation rather than a PAE/NPE practice.

Notable matters. He was part of the Finnegan team for US Synthetic Corp. v. ITC (Fed. Cir. No. 2023‑1217), the February 2025 precedential decision reversing the ITC's § 101 ineligibility ruling on a polycrystalline diamond compact patent (the ITC later found a Section 337 violation and issued a limited exclusion order in 337‑TA‑1236, reported December 2025; partner Daniel Cooley led that matter). He also worked on Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. Toyota Motor Corp. (E.D. Tex. 2:21‑cv‑00389), in which Toyota obtained IPR institution on 8 of 11 asserted patents and the case settled. Most recently he appeared as backup counsel in Samsung's IPRs against Harbor Island Dynamic and argued for the petitioners at the consolidated PTAB oral hearing on January 6, 2026 (IPR2024‑01403 and ‑01405, addressing deep‑trench‑isolation and via‑structure patents); he is listed as hearing counsel in the tracked data. In the related '886 patent IPR (IPR2024‑01402, also involving NXP), the Board's March 2026 final written decision held claims 3 and 8‑19 unpatentable, and the patent owner's subsequent Federal Circuit appeal was dismissed by agreement in September 2026 — note that Harding's name is not confirmed on the 01402 papers, so that outcome is reported for the related proceeding rather than attributed to him directly.

PTAB/IPR and credentials. IPRs are a regular part of his practice: he appeared pro hac vice in a series of Toyota v. Intellectual Ventures II petitions (IPR2022‑00972, ‑00974, ‑01127, ‑01130) and on the Samsung/Harbor Island Dynamic petitions. Court filings list him as backup counsel appearing pro hac vice rather than as a registered patent practitioner. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 2019 and the District of Columbia bar in 2020; he earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2019 (per Super Lawyers and his firm bio) and writes on IP topics, including two Harvard Journal of Law & Technology articles. He is also active in pro bono veterans representation and was named to the Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll.