Carter G. Phillips

Carter G. Phillips is a highly experienced appellate attorney, primarily focused on patent and intellectual property litigation, practicing as a partner at Sidley Austin LLP. With a career marked by extensive appellate advocacy, he has served as Lead Appellate Counsel in significant patent disputes, consistently representing operating companies on the defense side. His practice encompasses a wide array of technologies, including computer operating systems, semiconductor chips, and pharmaceutical compositions, as reflected in cases handled by Sidley's IP appellate team.

Phillips's notable patent litigation experience includes successfully representing eBay Inc. in the landmark Supreme Court case eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, which established the modern standard for issuing permanent injunctions in patent cases. He has also served as Lead Appellate Counsel for Microsoft Corporation in Uniloc USA, Inc. et al. v. Microsoft Corporation, and appeared in SpeedTrack, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc. before the Federal Circuit. His work underscores a clear preference for defending corporate clients against patent infringement claims.

A distinguished appellate advocate, Phillips has argued 82 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court as a private practitioner, the most of any lawyer in private practice, and an additional nine cases as an Assistant to the Solicitor General. He has also argued 40 cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. While his personal involvement in Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings is not explicitly detailed, his firm, Sidley Austin LLP, possesses significant experience in PTAB disputes. Furthermore, the Phillips v. AWH Corp. case, which established the "Phillips standard" for claim construction, is foundational to patent law and is now applied in IPR, PGR, and CBM proceedings before the PTAB, highlighting his namesake's indirect influence on this area.

Phillips earned his B.A. from Ohio State University in 1973 and his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1977. Early in his career, he clerked for Judge Robert Sprecher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and for Chief Justice Warren E. Burger on the U.S. Supreme Court. He also previously held leadership roles at Sidley, serving as Chair of the Executive Committee and Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office.