Geoffrey K. Gavin

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

Geoffrey K. Gavin — Jones Day (Atlanta)

Gavin is a Jones Day partner in the firm's Intellectual Property practice, based in Atlanta, whose practice centers on patent litigation and counseling, with a substantial secondary trade-secret and strategic-IP component. His technology coverage is unusually broad: Jones Day's biography lists wireless telecommunications, data encryption and computer security, bioelectronics, medical devices, semiconductors, LEDs, printers, automotive products, image processing, and tobacco heating/vaping products, while his 2013 move to the firm was announced with an emphasis on athletic footwear and equipment, software, paper products, floor covering, and logistics equipment. The tracked docket reflects that breadth — online-banking and network-security patents (the Intellectual Ventures II bank cases), bioelectronics instrumentation (impedance-based live-cell analysis), and memory/consumer-electronics subject matter. Search results do not show a Wi-Fi/standards-essential-patent or pharmaceutical/Hatch-Waxman focus, so claims of that kind should not be attributed to him.

Side preference. His tracked appearances skew modestly to the defense (6 defendant-side vs. 4 plaintiff-side), and the pattern is best described as a defense-side practice for operating companies, not NPE work. The four plaintiff-side entries are not a PAE practice: they are the declaratory-judgment/affirmative side of the Intellectual Ventures II campaign brought by bank clients (Compass Bank, Commerce Bancshares) and the banks' IPR petitions against IV. His other defense clients include IBM, Axion BioSystems, Adidas, Cox Communications, Cooper Lighting, and HD Supply. In short: he defends accused products and frequently counter-punches at the PTAB on the client's behalf.

Firm context. Gavin has been at Jones Day since July 2013, joining the Atlanta office as an IP partner from the Atlanta office of Kilpatrick Townsend (his Federal Circuit briefing work in the mid-2000s appears under Kilpatrick Stockton, that firm's predecessor name). He has spent his entire tracked litigation career in private practice; there is no indication he has been in-house.

Notable matters and outcomes. The most prominent verified results come from the Intellectual Ventures II bank litigation. Jones Day's own experience pages confirm that, for Compass Bank, three IPRs (IPR2014-00724, -00786, and Commerce Bancshares' IPR2014-00801) resulted in the PTAB holding unpatentable all asserted claims of three patents directed to security certificate management, packet filtering, and intrusion detection; IV declined to appeal one decision and Compass prevailed in the Federal Circuit on the two it appealed, and Compass ultimately obtained dismissal with prejudice of IV's infringement claims (N.D. Ala., No. 2:13-cv-01106). The related firewall-patent appeal, Intellectual Ventures II LLC v. Commerce Bancshares, Inc., was affirmed on the merits (Fed. Cir. Dec. 9, 2016; dismissed March 2017), and public reporting described that outcome as a significant blow to NPE litigation against banks. Less specifically identifiable from public sources: his firm bio cites a defense victory in a 19-patent case with an attorneys' fee award and an "exceptional case" finding, and competitor patent and trade-secret litigation over impedance-based live-cell analysis products — the latter corresponds to Agilent Technologies v. Axion BioSystems (D. Del. No. 1:23-cv-198 and a parallel 2024 case), where Jones Day represented Axion; court filings confirm Gavin's appearance, the case was stayed in favor of Axion's IPR (No. 2024-01467), Agilent disclaimed more than half the challenged claims, and the parties settled confidentially before trial.

PTAB/IPR experience. Yes — this is a recurring feature of his practice, not an occasional one. Public PTAB records show him as lead or backup counsel in proceedings involving Compass Bank, Commerce Bancshares, First National Bank of Omaha, Lord Corporation, Axion BioSystems, and RAI Strategic Holdings (patent owner in Philip Morris Products v. RAI Strategic Holdings, IPR2020-00920), and he writes regularly on the firm's PTAB Litigation Blog and sits on the IPO Post-Grant Patent Office Practice Committee.

Bar and education (per Jones Day's official biography). Duke University, B.S. mechanical engineering (1996); University of Alabama School of Law, J.D. summa cum laude (1999), Order of the Coif and Law Review editor. Admitted in Georgia (and Alabama, per the 2013 firm announcement); registered to practice before the USPTO (Reg. No. 47,591); admitted to the Federal Circuit and the Northern and Middle Districts of Georgia and the Eastern District of Texas. Note that some third-party directories list a 2001 J.D./bar date — the firm's own bio is the more reliable source, and the discrepancy is unexplained.