John Campbell

Specialty / focus. John B. Campbell Jr. is a Principal in the Austin office of McKool Smith whose practice is patent and complex commercial litigation, including district court, ITC, PTAB, Federal Circuit, and Supreme Court matters. His technology mix skews to wireless-standards and software cases — 802.11n, LTE/WCDMA/GSM, voice-command and speech-processing systems, servers, mobile devices, semiconductors, and DVR/interactive-TV technology — consistent with his background as a mechanical engineer. He is a registered patent attorney (USPTO Reg. No. 54,665).

Side preference / firm context. Of his six tracked appearances, five are on the plaintiff/patent-owner side and one on the defense side, but his practice genuinely spans both: he has long represented patent owners and NPEs (i4i, Summit 6, Ericsson, Odyssey Wireless, Parus, Wapp Tech) while also defending operating companies, notably American Airlines against Intellectual Ventures. The tracked case list places the two American Airlines v. Intellectual Ventures appearances at Fox Rothschild, but public dockets show him handling that same litigation from McKool Smith through 2025–26; I could not independently verify a Fox Rothschild tenure, so firm history beyond McKool Smith (where he has practiced since the mid-2000s) should be treated as per the tracked data. He previously clerked for Judge Sue L. Robinson (D. Del.).

Notable cases / outcomes. Campbell has deep trial experience on both sides of wireless standards disputes: he represented Ericsson in its 802.11n case against D-Link and others (2013 jury verdict) and in the Ericsson–Samsung global LTE/WCDMA disputes (ITC and district court, settled favorably), and represented i4i in the landmark i4i v. Microsoft case, whose jury verdict survived appeal to the Federal Circuit and a unanimous Supreme Court decision. He also obtained an eight-figure verdict for Summit 6 against Samsung. In the tracked Parus matters, he was lead counsel for Parus as patent owner in Google v. Parus (IPR2022-00279), where the PTAB found claims patentable in 2024, but on the parallel district-court appeal (Parus v. Google, No. 23-2297) the Federal Circuit affirmed § 101 invalidity in March 2025 — an adverse result worth flagging.

PTAB / IPR experience. PTAB/IPR work is a regular part of the practice: he is lead counsel in American Airlines' IPRs against Intellectual Ventures (IPR2025-00782, IPR2025-01510) and has drafted covered-business-method petitions, consistent with McKool Smith's ranking among the most active PTAB firms (top defense win rate in 2022; fifth-most-active firm 2022–24 per Law360).

Bar / education. Texas bar (2002); J.D. with honors, University of Texas (2002); B.S. mechanical engineering, Ohio Northern (1996); M.B.A., Xavier (1998). Recognized in Best Lawyers (2021–present) and Super Lawyers (2013–2019).