John Zhu

John Zhu is a Director and Associate General Counsel in Cisco Systems, Inc.'s intellectual property group, where he focuses on mitigating IP risk across the company's extensive product portfolios, including networking, security, and collaboration technologies. With a background in electrical engineering, his practice involves managing patent litigation matters, working on patent strategy, and negotiating IP licenses.

Throughout his career, Mr. Zhu has primarily defended operating companies against patent assertions. His current role at Cisco Systems reflects this, with five of his seven tracked appearances being on the defendant side. Before joining Cisco in 2018, he worked at O'Melveny & Myers LLP and Mayer Brown LLP, largely concentrating on defending companies against non-practicing entities (NPEs).

A significant portion of his in-house experience at Cisco involves the protracted Centripetal Networks, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc. litigation. This multi-year dispute initially saw a district court award of over $2.75 billion against Cisco for willful infringement of network security patents. However, the Federal Circuit later vacated this judgment, remanding the case due to a judicial recusal issue concerning the trial judge's financial interest in Cisco stock. On remand, a new district court judge subsequently ruled in favor of Cisco, finding Centripetal failed to prove infringement of the asserted patents. Mr. Zhu was actively involved in these proceedings.

While in private practice, Mr. Zhu gained experience in IP litigation across both district courts and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and his J.D. from the George Washington University. He is admitted to practice in California, holding State Bar number 310857.