Garrett D. Blanchfield, Jr.

I'll research this attorney's background and practice.

Let me verify the tracked case details and check for PTAB/IPR involvement.

Practice Summary — Garrett D. Blanchfield, Jr.

Specialty / focus. Blanchfield is not a career patent litigator; his practice is plaintiffs'-side complex litigation — antitrust, securities, consumer protection, and RICO class actions. His single tracked patent matter, CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. Digi International Inc. (D. Minn., No. 0:26-cv-03949, assigned to Judge Menendez/Magistrate Judge Micko), sits in the Wi-Fi/networking technology space: the asserted portfolio covers IEEE 802.11-related inventions including Wi-Fi Protected Setup ("time-based wireless access provisioning") and Wi-Fi Multimedia/QoS ("contention free traffic detection") patents — U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,177,285; 7,463,596; 7,911,979; 7,027,465; RE44,904; and 6,891,807. Plaintiff CommWorks Solutions, LLC is a Georgia NPE (an affiliate of IP Investments Group LLC) that has filed similar Wi-Fi assertion suits against cable, ISP, and networking-equipment defendants in Texas, California, and elsewhere. I found no web sourcing indicating Blanchfield handles patent prosecution or has a broader patent-litigation book of business; his profile and CLE/teaching history are antitrust-, securities-, and class-action-focused.

Side preference. The tracked data shows 1 plaintiff-side appearance and 0 defendant-side, and his broader career is consistently plaintiff/class-action oriented — the firm describes itself as representing plaintiffs in antitrust, securities, consumer protection, and racketeering matters. In the CommWorks case, however, he appears to be acting as local counsel (the docket shows him entering the case and moving for pro hac vice admission of outside patent counsel, consistent with local-counsel role), not as first-chair patent trial counsel. So: plaintiff/NPE side, in a supporting local-counsel capacity rather than as lead patent advocate.

Firm context. Blanchfield is a founding partner of Reinhardt Wendorf & Blanchfield (St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN), formed in March 2003 as the successor to Reinhardt & Anderson, where he was previously a partner. He has litigated class actions for more than 30 years. There is no indication of in-house or defense-side firm history relevant to patent work.

Notable matters and outcomes. His most prominent tracked case is CommWorks v. Digi International (patent, NPE plaintiff). His significant litigation track record is in antitrust/class actions: Tyler v. Hennepin County, 143 S. Ct. 1369 (2023) (unanimous Supreme Court reversal on unconstitutional tax forfeiture; team recognized as Minnesota Lawyers of the Year in 2023); Lorix v. Crompton Corp., 734 N.W.2d 619 (Minn. 2007) (unanimous Minnesota Supreme Court reversal on indirect-purchaser standing); Robertson v. Sea Pines Real Estate Co., 679 F.3d 278 (4th Cir. 2012) (affirming denial of motions to dismiss Sherman Act claims); and Dahl v. Bain Capital Partners (D. Mass.) (approximately $590 million in class settlements). I found no reported patent verdicts, claim-construction rulings, or settlements attributable to him.

PTAB / IPR experience. No evidence that Blanchfield appears regularly — or at all — in IPR/PGR proceedings in his own name; the PTAB and ex parte reexamination activity surrounding CommWorks's asserted portfolio (e.g., Unified Patents' IPR2021-01297 involving U.S. Pat. No. 8,923,846 and an ex parte reexam of U.S. Pat. No. 6,832,249) appears to have been handled by the NPE's outside patent counsel, not by him.

Bar / education. Admitted to the Minnesota bar in 1990 (U.S. District Court, D. Minnesota, 1994); J.D., Hamline University School of Law (now Mitchell Hamline), 1990; B.A., Carleton College, 1986.

Caveat: The patent-practice portion of this summary rests on a single tracked appearance plus public docket records; treat his patent-litigation experience as limited and confirm scope directly with the attorney.