Jon Howell

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Let me verify the ITC action, case outcomes, and any PTAB activity.

Jon Howell — patent litigation profile

Focus and practice setting. Jon Howell is the General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of Hyperice, Inc., the Irvine, California–based recovery and performance technology company (percussion massage guns, vibrating rollers, thermal devices). His patent work is entirely in-house and centers on consumer fitness/recovery hardware — battery-powered percussive massage devices, quick-connect massage-head mechanisms, and vibrating roller technology. This is mechanical/electromechanical device litigation rather than standards-based (Wi-Fi/SEP) or pharmaceutical work; the company's patents-in-suit include U.S. Patent No. 11,857,482 ("Massage Device Having Variable Stroke Length") and U.S. Patent No. 10,561,574.

Side preference. He is exclusively a plaintiff-side enforcer. The tracked data shows one appearance, as plaintiff-side in-house counsel, and no defendant-side appearances. Public statements attributed to him consistently frame the practice as affirmative IP enforcement — policing knockoffs and counterfeiters, and suing competitors and retailers — not defending infringement claims. Hyperice is an operating company asserting its own product patents, so this is operating-company enforcement rather than NPE/PAE activity.

Firm context. He has been with Hyperice since February 2020, when he joined as General Counsel (now GC/Chief Legal Officer). Before that, from 2004 until February 2020, he was an attorney and member at Czech & Howell, APC in Anaheim, California — a general civil litigation firm, not an IP boutique. He is admitted in California (2004); J.D., UC Hastings College of the Law (2004); B.A., California State University, Fullerton (2001). His patent litigation is managed with outside counsel (Miller Barondess LLP and Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP have signed the filings), so his role is strategic direction of the enforcement program rather than first-chair docket appearances.

Notable matters and outcomes. The most prominent tracked case is Hyper Ice, Inc. et al. v. JOICOM CORPORATION d/b/a RENPHO (C.D. Cal., No. 8:24-cv-00098), asserting the '482 patent against RENPHO's massage-gun line, with Hyperice's own Rule 26(f) report estimating damages in the $10–30 million range, exclusive of enhanced damages. The case was consolidated for pretrial purposes with several related Hyperice suits and administratively stayed in August 2024 pending Hyper Ice, Inc. v. MerchSource, LLC; I could not verify a final judgment or settlement. At the company level, Hyperice obtained a rare general exclusion order from the U.S. International Trade Commission in December 2021 in Certain Percussive Massage Devices (Inv. No. 337-TA-1206), barring importation of infringing handheld massage guns — an outcome the ITC bar noted as occurring in fewer than 15% of investigations, though the design patents were terminated for lack of standing and outside counsel (Lewis Brisbois) tried that matter. Hyperice also litigated against Therabody/Theragun beginning in 2020.

PTAB/IPR. No IPR, PGR, or PTAB proceeding is confirmed in the accessible record as personally attributed to Jon Howell. Note that during the ITC investigation, a respondent filed a post-grant review at the PTAB as part of its invalidity strategy, but that is adverse-party activity, not an appearance by Howell.

Disambiguation note: several other attorneys share the name — e.g., Jonathan S.S. Howell (patent prosecutor, Patterson + Sheridan, Atlanta), Jason Howell (advertising/IP, Frankfurt Kurnit), John A. Howell (government contracts, Sullivan & Worcester), and Jonathan L. Howell (Dallas litigator). None of those appear related to this profile; the identity above is the Hyperice GC, confirmed by Martindale-Hubbell (Czech & Howell, APC), the Orange County Business Journal's 2022 General Counsel Award (Private Company category), and multiple company press statements.