John Rhine

John Rhine is an intellectual property litigation partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, focusing his practice on patent and trade secret disputes. His expertise spans a variety of technologies, including semiconductors, mobile devices, and electronics.

Rhine's litigation experience demonstrates a balanced approach, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in patent infringement actions. For instance, he served as counsel for Intel Corporation as a plaintiff and also for Greenthread LLC as a defendant in related patent disputes, both handled by Kirkland & Ellis. The cases involving Greenthread and Intel concerned semiconductor devices with graded dopant regions, a foundational technology in semiconductor architecture. Prior to joining Kirkland, he represented leading semiconductor and mobile device companies in patent infringement actions and also handled trade secret cases involving flash memory and chemical technologies.

He also has experience with Patent Office Post-Grant Proceedings, indicating involvement in PTAB (Patent Trial and Appeal Board) matters. This is particularly relevant given that the cases involving Greenthread's semiconductor patents have seen related IPR (Inter Partes Review) proceedings at the PTAB.

Rhine earned his J.D., cum laude, from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in 2013 and holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2008). He is admitted to practice in Illinois (2013) and the District of Columbia (2015).