Jayne C. Piana

Specialty / focus areas. Jayne C. Piana is a patent litigator whose tracked docket is concentrated in network communications and software-implemented technologies. In Quicker Connections v. Cisco Systems (E.D. Tex.), she represents the plaintiff asserting patents directed to remote network access multiplexing, ring-network protection, and MPLS-over-RPR signaling; in Privakey v. Cisco (E.D. Tex.), the asserted patents cover device-based authentication and zero-trust security (Cisco Duo). Her firm bio describes a broader practice spanning IP enforcement, licensing, portfolio management, and freedom-to-operate work, with a chemical-engineering background and a prior decade as in-house counsel at BP Americas (oilfield/energy).

Side preference. All three tracked appearances are plaintiff-side matters, two as lead counsel at Brown Rudnick, and her recent docket (also including Driving Innovation v. Toyota and Gamba Group v. Samsung, per Law360) reflects a pattern of representing patent owners — including NPE/PAE-style entities — against operating companies such as Cisco, Samsung, and Meta. Her bio states she has also defended accused infringers (e.g., Stabil Drill Specialties, where she helped obtain summary judgment of non-infringement), but the current tracked matters are uniformly plaintiff-side.

Firm context. Piana is a partner in Brown Rudnick's Intellectual Property Litigation group (Houston), joining in November 2024 with an eight-lawyer IP team that moved from Bochner (Global Legal Post). Earlier stops include Fletcher Yoder (shareholder), Slusser, and Fulbright & Jaworski, plus 10 years as senior counsel at BP America. In February 2025 she was named co-chair of Brown Rudnick's PTAB practice alongside Erick Robinson (Patent Lawyer Magazine).

Notable cases, PTAB/IPR, and credentials. Her most prominent verified results are IPR defense wins and favorable settlements: in Eight kHz v. Meta Platforms (W.D. Tex.), the team defeated transfer and IPR challenges on VR/AR sound-processing patents and settled favorably in April 2026; in Mobile Data Technologies v. Samsung, the USPTO denied institution of all 10 IPRs Samsung filed against the five asserted patents, and the case settled favorably. She also defended three Quantum Imaging patents against Sony's IPR petitions. She appears regularly before the PTAB — e.g., in Cisco's IPR2025-01088 against Quicker Connections' patents, where she signed patent-owner mandatory notices and Fintiv-based discretionary-denial briefing — consistent with her co-chair role. Education: J.D., University of Texas School of Law (Order of the Coif); B.S. Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M; admitted in Texas and before the USPTO (Reg. No. 48,424).