Brian D. Johnston

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Brian D. Johnston — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Specialty / focus areas. Johnston is a principal at Caldwell Cassady & Curry who handles intellectual property and complex commercial litigation, including patent, trade secret, and copyright cases in federal district courts and on Federal Circuit appeal. He has an electrical engineering background, and the firm describes his technical focus as semiconductors, electronics, telecommunications, networking, digital signal processing, and related hardware/software. That profile maps onto his tracked matters, which center on media and streaming patent portfolios: the Adeia cases assert patents covering electronic program guides, streaming/adaptive bitrate delivery, channel-change behavior, and dynamic manifest/ad-insertion technology. A related Caldwell Cassady matter credits him on Adeia's semiconductor (hybrid bonding / advanced process node) enforcement against AMD.

Side preference. On the tracked docket he is entirely plaintiff-side (2 of 2 appearances, both as lead counsel), representing Adeia — a large patent-licensing and technology company descended from TiVo/Rovi/Gemstar/Macrovision — in enforcement actions against streaming defendants. The firm's bio and 2021 lateral announcement, however, state that he has represented both plaintiffs and defendants across his career (including his years at Baker Botts), so the current docket reflects a plaintiff-enforcement posture rather than an exclusively NPE-side practice. Note that the sample here is small (two tracked cases), so the plaintiff-only count should not be read as a definitive side preference.

Firm context. Johnston joined Dallas-based Caldwell Cassady & Curry as a principal in January 2021, moving from the intellectual property department at Baker Botts, where he was a partner (promoted effective January 1, 2018, per an 11-lawyer round reported by Commercial Dispute Resolution). Before private practice he clerked for Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis (E.D.N.Y.) and Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod (5th Cir.). He is not an in-house attorney.

Notable matters. The tracked Adeia v. Walt Disney Company / BAMTech, Hulu, and ESPN action (D. Del., C.A. No. 24-cv-1231, filed November 2024) was resolved by stipulated dismissal with prejudice after the parties reached an agreement; the firm reports the resolution included long-term licensing deals covering Adeia's media patents with Disney, ESPN, Hulu, and other Disney subsidiaries (announced December 2025). He is also named among the Caldwell Cassady team that secured a $150 million pre-trial settlement for Nanoco Technologies against Samsung Electronics in E.D. Tex. (2023), and on the Adeia team that concluded semiconductor patent suits against AMD through multi-year licenses (reported March 2026). Attorney-by-attorney credit for specific results is taken from firm announcements and may overstate any one lawyer's individual role.

PTAB / IPR experience. A 2018 trade report on his Baker Botts promotion specifically noted PTAB appearances as part of his practice. He was named among counsel on the Nanoco matter in which Samsung's IPR challenges to five Nanoco patents failed on all 47 contested claims, and he appears on teams handling high-volume IPR activity for clients such as Adeia (which faces Disney-filed IPR petitions, IPR2026-00053/-00054, arising from the Delaware action). Public records confirm the practice-area exposure but do not show him as first-chair in a specific IPR.

Bar / education. Admitted in New York (2009), Texas (2012), the Federal Circuit, E.D. Tex., N.D. Tex., E.D. Wis., and the USPTO; J.D. magna cum laude, NYU School of Law (2008); B.S., Rice University (2005).