Jad A. Mills

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Jad A. Mills — Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (Seattle)

Specialty / focus. Mills's practice is built around Patent Trial and Appeal Board proceedings under the AIA and the related federal court and Federal Circuit work that accompanies them. Wilson Sonsini's own descriptions place his technical experience in life sciences, pharmaceuticals, peptide chemistry, gene sequencing, diagnostics, medical devices, and electronic systems; an earlier firm profile (as an associate) also listed semiconductors and oil and gas. The tracked docket bears this out: challenged subject matter includes fingolimod (Apotex v. Novartis), netupitant/palonosetron CINV formulations (Azurity v. Helsinn), GIP/GLP-1 co-agonist peptides such as tirzepatide (Empower v. Eli Lilly), and molecular diagnostics/gene-sequencing patents (Guardant Health; Gene Company Pty v. Columbia University). This is a chemistry- and life-sciences-heavy PTAB portfolio, not a Wi-Fi/standards or mechanical practice.

Side preference. The tracked list is 7 plaintiff-side to 1 defendant-side. In practice, that plaintiff-side skew reflects his role as petitioner-side IPR counsel — challenging branded pharmaceutical patents on behalf of generics, compounding pharmacies, and life-sciences companies — rather than NPE/PAE assertion work. He has also appeared as PTAB-side counsel on the defense side of at least one tracked matter. Wilson Sonsini's institutional positioning is defense-leaning, but Mills's own docket is predominantly patent-challenger work.

Firm context and PTAB standing. He is a partner in Wilson Sonsini's Seattle office and has spent essentially his entire tracked career there (admitted to the USPTO bar, Reg. No. 63,344). Before joining the firm he was an associate in the Los Angeles office of Irell & Manella, focused on IP litigation. He is a fixture in the PTAB bar: he was elected to the board of directors of the PTAB Bar Association in March 2026 and previously served as vice chair of the association's conference committee. He appears regularly in IPR/PGR proceedings, typically alongside Wilson Sonsini colleagues Richard Torczon and Michael Rosato.

Notable matters. Azurity Pharmaceuticals v. Helsinn Healthcare is the most prominent recent result in the tracked list: the PTAB instituted all five IPRs (IPR2025-00945 through -00949) on November 19, 2025, targeting Helsinn's Akynzeo CINV patents after the petitions survived Director discretionary review — a notable outcome given tightened institution rates, and one Mills publicly commented on. He was back-up counsel in Apotex v. Novartis (IPR2017-00854, U.S. 9,187,405), where the Board's final written decision rejected all three invalidity grounds and Apotex appealed to the Federal Circuit. He is lead/petitioner counsel in Empower Clinic Services v. Eli Lilly (IPR2025-01024), challenging Lilly's tirzepatide peptide patent. He also appears as counsel on Guardant Health's IPR2022-00746 and as lead counsel for Gene Company Pty Ltd in IPR2024-00312 and -00313 against Columbia University.

Bar / education. Reported as J.D., Harvard Law School (2011), and B.S. in Biochemistry, Brigham Young University (2008), with a prior Eighth Circuit clerkship for Judge Raymond W. Gruender; admitted in California and Washington, before the Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court, and at the USPTO. These biographical details come from a third-party attorney profile rather than the firm's current bio page, so I'd verify them directly before relying on any of them.