Bryan Sinclair

Bryan Sinclair is a seasoned intellectual property litigator, currently serving as the Senior Director and Associate General Counsel of IP Litigation at Cisco Systems, Inc., a role he has held since joining the company in 2017. In this capacity, he oversees the global management of Cisco's intellectual property litigation, encompassing patent, copyright, and trade secret disputes across U.S. District Courts, the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB), the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court, and various foreign jurisdictions. His practice frequently involves complex technology areas such as networking, cybersecurity, and communications, as evidenced by his involvement in key cases. Sinclair also contributes to Cisco's Generative AI task force and advises on open-source issues.

Primarily working on the defendant side for an operating company, Sinclair's role at Cisco involves defending the company against patent infringement assertions. While his tracked appearances include instances where Cisco is formally listed as a plaintiff (e.g., in IPRs it initiates), these actions are typically part of a broader defensive strategy to challenge patents asserted against Cisco or its industry peers. Before his in-house tenure, Sinclair was an IP litigation partner at K&L Gates for over seven years, based in their Palo Alto office, and also practiced at several other international law firms.

A significant case under his purview is Centripetal Networks, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc., which involved claims of infringement of network-security patents. Initially, a U.S. District Court awarded Centripetal Networks over $1.9 billion in damages, finding Cisco's infringement to be willful and egregious. However, this judgment was later vacated by the Federal Circuit. Sinclair's responsibilities include extensive engagement in PTAB proceedings, managing inter partes reviews (IPRs) both defensively and proactively. This is demonstrated by cases such as "In re Centripetal Networks, LLC," which involved IPR challenges to Centripetal's patents, where Cisco was a joined petitioner. He also oversees Cisco's involvement in actions like Unified Patents v. Golden Eye Technologies LLC, where Unified Patents often challenges patents asserted by Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs) in high-tech fields like wireless communications.

Sinclair earned his J.D. from St. Thomas University School of Law in 1993 and holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University (1989). He further obtained an LL.M. in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2000.