James M. Dowd

I'll research this attorney's professional background and verify the tracked cases before drafting.

Good material. Let me verify the notable case outcomes and the recent trial victory.

James M. Dowd — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Focus areas. Dowd's practice centers on patent litigation and strategy, with an unusually heavy ITC Section 337 docket and a broad technology range. His firm bio and case history cover Wi-Fi/802.11 and RF front-end modules, semiconductor manufacturing and photolithography, integrated circuits, flash memory, GPS, video streaming and encryption, gaming systems, and — on the life-sciences side — biologics, diagnostics (maternal blood preservation), and single-cell analysis instruments. He also handles mechanical/electromechanical matters (e.g., movable barrier operator systems) and disputes at the patent/antitrust, trade secret, and Lanham Act margins. He is based in Los Angeles and joined the firm in 1997, transferring from its DC office to LA in 2008.

Side preference. Overwhelmingly defense-side: 9 of 11 tracked appearances are as defendant/counsel for accused infringers, against 2 plaintiff-side appearances. The plaintiff-side work is concentrated in Skyworks Solutions Canada, Inc. et al. v. Kangxi Communication Technologies (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. et al., where he is listed as lead counsel on both entries. Effectively he is a defense litigator for operating companies (Netflix, Hulu, Sony, Apple, MediaTek, ASML, STMicroelectronics, Roche, Dell/HP, Skyworks in other matters) rather than a routine NPE/PAE prosecutor, though he will take an affirmative assertion when the client is the patent holder.

Firm context. He has spent his entire career at one firm — Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP / WilmerHale (the two names in the tracked data are the same firm), where he is a partner in the Litigation/Controversy Department and a member of the IP Litigation and Appellate/Supreme Court practices. No prior-firm history or in-house role appears in the record.

Notable cases and outcomes. He was on the WilmerHale team that secured a complete defense verdict for Netflix in DivX, LLC v. Netflix, Inc. (C.D. Cal.), where the jury found no infringement of four video streaming/encryption patents despite a damages demand exceeding $400 million (verdict March 25, 2026; judgment May 7, 2026). He is listed as lead/lead trial counsel in the related DivX v. Hulu matters and as trial counsel in Netflix v. DivX. In September 2026 the firm announced that a team including Dowd won a $56 million jury verdict for Beckman Coulter against Cytek Biosciences in D. Del. (single-cell analysis technology). His firm bio credits him with trying more than a dozen Section 337 investigations since 2002 with the Commission ruling for his client each time, including exclusion orders for Broadcom/Global Locate and The Chamberlain Group. One caution: in the tracked Skyworks v. Kangxi assertion, the verified outcome was adverse — an ITC administrative law judge issued an initial determination of no violation in January 2026, and Skyworks (per Kangxi's public filings and opposing counsel's announcements) unconditionally withdrew the ITC complaint and the parallel C.D. Cal. case in April 2026.

PTAB/IPR experience. Yes — he is a regular in post-grant proceedings. A 2021 pro hac vice declaration states he had appeared in ten IPRs in the preceding three years (e.g., IPR2017-00210, -00219, -00700, -00701, -00728; IPR2018-01152/01153/01154/01240), and he is listed as backup counsel in the Sony v. Intellectual Pixels IPRs (IPR2020-01248, IPR2021-00237). His bio cites numerous post-grant reviews before the PTAB and arbitrations before the ICDR.

Bar/education. J.D., Boston University School of Law, 1997 (cum laude); B.A., Saint Michael's College, 1994. Admitted in Virginia (1997), D.C. (2000), and California (2008); also admitted before the Supreme Court, the Federal Circuit, the Ninth and Fourth Circuits, and several district courts including C.D. Cal., N.D. Cal., and E.D. Va. He has been repeatedly listed in IAM Patent 1000 (litigation) and Legal 500's ITC rankings.