J. Wesley Earnhardt

I'll research this attorney's background and practice to prepare the summary.

I need to disambiguate carefully — there's a New York antitrust attorney at Cravath with the same name, and the tracked case shows a Kilpatrick Townsend attorney. Let me dig deeper.

Attorney Summary: J. Wesley Earnhardt

Specialty / focus areas. The tracked record shows Mr. Earnhardt handling patent litigation in the financial-services and banking-technology space. His one tracked matter — DataTreasury Corporation v. Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (E.D. Tex., No. 2:13-cv-00432) — involved DataTreasury's "Ballard" check-imaging and electronic payment/clearing patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 5,910,988 and 6,032,137), asserted against FIS and numerous customer banks. That places his work in software-implemented business methods, electronic financial transactions, and document-imaging technology, consistent with Kilpatrick Townsend's broader IP litigation practice. I could not verify from public sources whether he handles other technology areas (e.g., telecom/standards, pharma, or mechanical), so this summary is limited to what the case record supports.

Side preference. Mr. Earnhardt's tracked appearance is exclusively defendant-side (1 defendant-side matter, 0 plaintiff-side). He represented an operating company — Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), a financial-technology provider — against an NPE/PAE plaintiff (DataTreasury). The pattern is defense of operating companies accused of infringing business-method and software patents. There is no tracked or web-verifiable indication that he represents patent owners or NPEs.

Firm context. His tracked appearance is under Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, where he served as counsel to the defendant. Note that public case summaries of the DataTreasury/FIS matter identify Finnegan (Erika Arner, Rachel Emsley, Kevin Rodkey) as the firm that argued the related PTAB and Federal Circuit proceedings, so Kilpatrick Townsend's role appears to have been in the district court litigation or as additional defense counsel. Publicly available profiles also show a "J. Wesley Earnhardt" at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York practicing antitrust and securities litigation; absent confirmation that this is the same individual, I would flag that as likely a different attorney with the same name and did not rely on it.

Notable cases / outcomes. The tracked case is the flagship matter: DataTreasury Corp. v. Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (E.D. Tex., filed 2013), part of DataTreasury's campaign that reportedly collected over $350 million in settlements from banks. The patents were invalidated in covered business method (CBM) reviews at the PTAB (CBM2014-00020, -00021) as patent-ineligible under Alice, and the Federal Circuit affirmed via Rule 36 judgment (Nos. 16-1046, -1048, Oct. 2016); the case closed in 2017. The publicly documented CBM and appellate advocacy was led by Finnegan, so Mr. Earnhardt's specific contribution to that victory cannot be verified from the sources available.

PTAB / IPR experience. The tracked litigation was intertwined with PTAB CBM challenges of the same patents, and Kilpatrick Townsend was involved in the broader defense. However, I found no reliable source establishing that Mr. Earnhardt personally appears regularly in IPR/PGR or CBM proceedings before the PTAB, so I would not characterize him as a regular PTAB practitioner absent further confirmation.

Bar / education. Not reliably sourced for this attorney. The only education/bar details found online (UNC School of Law, J.D. 2004; New York bar 2005) belong to the Cravath attorney of the same name, who appears to be a different individual; I omitted those credentials to avoid misattribution.

Sources: CourtListener/RPX docket summaries of DataTreasury v. FIS; Finnegan case summaries and Bloomberg BNA coverage of the CBM invalidation; SEC filings (FIS Form 10-Q); Super Lawyers profile (noted only for disambiguation).