Cristofer Leffler

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Let me gather more detail on his notable cases and PTAB work.

A couple final checks on the Federal Circuit outcome and his earlier firm history.

Cristofer ("Cris") I. Leffler — Patent Litigation Summary

Focus areas. Leffler is a first-chair IP trial lawyer whose work clusters in telecommunications and wireless infrastructure, network security software, and consumer/audio electronics. His best-documented matters involve distributed antenna systems (DAS) and cellular infrastructure (Dali Wireless's campaigns against CommScope, Corning, and Verizon), network access-control software (the K. Mizra '705 patent against Cisco and HPE), and hearables/audio patents (Earin AB against Skullcandy, Sennheiser, and Audio-Technica). His Folio Law Group bio describes a broader mix of patent, trademark, copyright, and complex business litigation across telecom, software, medical device, and circuit design; third-party analytics of his docket categorize a plurality of his cases as communications and software/security, with smaller counts in semiconductor/optics and mechanical/manufacturing (e.g., i4F Licensing flooring patents). He also handles IP monetization and licensing.

Side preference. The tracked data show 3 of 3 appearances on the plaintiff side, all as lead counsel — but that sample understates the picture. His current practice leans toward representing patent owners and licensing entities: he has acted as patent-owner/appellee counsel for K. Mizra, and for Gaea LLC (which Unified Patents has publicly characterized as an NPE asserting data-storage patents against Samsung and Meta) and Pinn Audio. Earlier in his career he carried a substantial defense docket as well, including defending Valve Corporation, representing Dali Wireless when it was sued first, and defending copyright claims for Amazon-related and other corporate clients. Net: plaintiff/patent-owner-oriented today, with a genuinely mixed defense background behind it.

Firm context and background. He is Founder and Managing Partner of Folio Law Group PLLC (Seattle). Before that he was a partner in the Seattle trial group at Dorsey & Whitney LLP (joined 2018, from Foster Pepper PLLC, where he co-chaired the IP litigation practice), and earlier held in-house roles as Director of IP Litigation at Intellectual Ventures Management LLC (2011–2016) and as in-house counsel at T-Mobile USA (2010–2011), with private practice from his 1999 graduation until 2010. His Folio bio also lists prior senior roles at K&L Gates LLP; that K&L Gates tenure is asserted only in his own firm biography and I could not independently verify it in the sources reviewed. The "Leffler Law Firm" appearance in the tracked data appears to reflect his own practice entity.

Notable matters and PTAB/Federal Circuit work. His most prominent result is CommScope Technologies LLC v. Dali Wireless, Inc. (N.D. Tex.), a multi-year DAS dispute in which a Dallas jury in June 2019 returned a $9 million verdict for Dali on two Dali patents while awarding CommScope $1.98 million on five older CommScope patents. On appeal (Fed. Cir. No. 20-1817, Aug. 24, 2021), the court held substantial evidence did not support the jury's infringement finding on the Dali patent at issue — a partial reversal that cut against the $9 million award — so the verdict should not be described as final without noting that appellate outcome. He has appeared regularly in PTAB proceedings as patent-owner counsel, including the Corning IPRs against Dali (a split panel found Corning failed to show the challenged antenna patent claims invalid, July 2022), and he authored the July 2025 petition filings in Folio's PTAB practice. He also appeared for appellee K. Mizra in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. K. Mizra LLC (Fed. Cir. Nos. 2022-2290, 2023-1183), where the panel vacated and remanded the Board's final written decision on motivation-to-combine grounds (Aug. 16, 2024), and the subsequent precedential November 19, 2024 order denying the settling appellants' unopposed Rule 42(b) motions to dismiss — a ruling now cited on the effect of late settlement in PTAB appeals.

Bar/education. Admitted in California (1999/2000) and Washington; admitted before the Federal and Fifth Circuits and numerous district courts (C.D./N.D./S.D./E.D. Cal., E.D./W.D. Wash., E.D./W.D. Tex., S.D.N.Y.). B.S., cum laude, Washington State University; J.D., Seattle University School of Law.