Christian Havel Hallerud

I'll research this attorney's background before drafting the summary.

Let me research the key cases and PTAB activity.

Let me check the district court cases and Federal Circuit briefing roles.

Professional Summary — Christian Havel Hallerud

Focus areas. Hallerud's tracked practice is concentrated in a single technology family: railroad and rail-transit systems, specifically ultra-wideband (UWB) and GPS-based collision-avoidance, vehicle separation, and signal-enforcement technology. All eight tracked appearances arise from the Metrom Rail patent family — U.S. Patent Nos. 9,043,131, 8,812,227, and related rail-vehicle-management patents — litigated against Siemens Mobility, Hitachi Rail GTS USA (fka Ground Transportation Systems USA), Humatics, and Piper Networks, and against the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. His firm bio and ICLG/WTR profiles describe a broader practice spanning mechanical, electrical, and industrial devices, plus computer/electronics and consumer products, along with patent prosecution and IP transactions. No pharma, life-sciences, or Wi-Fi/standards-essential patent work appears in the tracked record.

Side preference. The docketed counts (5 plaintiff-side, 3 defendant-side) are somewhat misleading, because they largely reflect the dual posture of one dispute. On the district-court side he has appeared for Metrom Rail as patent plaintiff, and for plaintiffs JB Innovations and Carac International (track equipment, N.D. Ill. 2025) — i.e., patent-owner enforcement work for an operating company, not a classic NPE/PAE model. The "defendant" entries correspond to proceedings captioned Siemens Mobility, Inc. et al. v. Metrom Rail, LLC, where Metrom was the patent owner responding to inter partes review petitions and then the appellant/cross-appellee at the Federal Circuit. He therefore works both postures but is weighted toward patent-owner representation, with a substantial share of that work on the defensive PTAB and appellate side.

Firm context. He is an associate at McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd. in Chicago (500 W. Madison St.). McAndrews is the only firm in the tracked data, and his firm bio indicates he joined as a summer associate while in law school. No prior firms or in-house positions are identified in searchable sources.

Notable matters and outcomes. The marquee matter is Metrom Rail, LLC v. Siemens Mobility, Inc., Nos. 24-2223, -2236, -2264 (Fed. Cir. May 11, 2026) (nonprecedential), in which he is listed as counsel of record for Metrom. The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB's obviousness holdings invalidating all claims of the '227 patent and claims 1–16 of the '131 patent, and on the petitioners' cross-appeal reversed the Board's upholding of claims 17–20 of the '131 patent — a net loss for his client, which also lost its nexus/secondary-considerations argument under Fox Factory v. SRAM and its single-reference obviousness challenge. Judge Taranto concurred in part and dissented as to claims 17–20, faulting the majority for adopting a claim construction no party advanced. Metrom filed a combined petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc. Other tracked matters include Metrom Rail, LLC v. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (transferred to D. Mass.) and Metrom Rail, LLC v. Ground Transportation Systems USA Inc. (now Hitachi Rail GTS USA Inc.), plus the underlying D. Del./S.D.N.Y. actions (Metrom Rail v. Siemens Mobility, No. 1:22-cv-00049-RGA). He also authors on patent damages and Federal Circuit trends (Law360, March 2025, with Tom Wimbiscus; recent Lexology In-Depth and ICLG Patent Litigation chapters with Wil Rao).

PTAB / IPR experience. Yes — this is a central part of his practice. He was on McAndrews' patent-owner team for Siemens Mobility, Inc. v. Metrom Rail, LLC, IPR2023-00468 and IPR2023-00470 (final written decisions June 2024, instituted on all claims), and is counsel of record for Metrom in the resulting Federal Circuit appeals from those Board decisions. His firm bio also cites PTAB proceedings as a stated focus.

Bar and education. Illinois bar; registered to practice before the USPTO; admitted in the N.D. Ill., C.D. Ill., and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; J.D. magna cum laude, University of Illinois College of Law; B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Purdue University.