Joseph A. Micallef

Joseph A. Micallef — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Specialty / focus. Micallef is a veteran trial lawyer (30+ years) focused on electrical, computer, and software technologies: standard-essential cellular (LTE) patents, memory/semiconductor devices, computer microarchitectures and operating systems, search and streaming software, reconfigurable computing, video compression, and—most recently—solar cell (TOPCon) technology. He litigates in district court, the Federal Circuit, the ITC, and the PTAB. He is a registered patent attorney (USPTO Reg. No. 39,772) with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (Catholic University, 1988), a J.D. (University of Virginia, 1991), and a Delaware Supreme Court clerkship (Justice Walsh); admitted in Delaware (1993) and D.C. (1994). He has taught patent and trade secret law as an adjunct at Georgetown Law for 20+ years.

Side preference / firm context. His seven tracked appearances split 5 plaintiff / 2 defendant, all while at Sidley Austin. That recent tilt reflects plaintiff-side enforcement work (GM v. AutoConnect, HCSC v. OL Security, Runergy and Canadian Solar v. Trina/Maxon) layered over a career-long reputation as a defense lawyer for operating companies against NPE/PAE assertions—notably for Microsoft, SK Hynix, Lenovo, Apple, HTC, and Nokia (per his Axinn bio and IAM/Managing IP rankings). He left Sidley in March 2025 and is now a partner at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider in Washington, D.C., where he leads the post-grant procedures practice. Firm history before Sidley is not reliably sourced.

Notable cases. The highest-profile tracked matter is IPA Technologies v. Microsoft (D. Del.), where Micallef was lead defense counsel: Microsoft took a $242 million jury verdict loss in May 2024 and settled the following month. He was also defense lead in the Trina Solar TOPCon ITC investigations (337-TA-1422/1425) and related district court and IPR proceedings involving Runergy, Adani, and Canadian Solar entities; those investigations were terminated in full in February 2026. His career highlights include representing SK Hynix against Netlist in two ITC investigations, three district cases, and 20 IPRs involving memory-module SEPs, and defending Lenovo in InterDigital's cellular SEP litigation.

PTAB / IPR experience. Extensive and central to his practice: he has appeared in roughly 200 IPR/PGR proceedings, serving as lead or backup counsel in IPRs for Microsoft, Apple, HTC, SK Hynix, Lenovo, and Runergy—including IPR2025-00006/-00007 challenging Trina Solar's TOPCon patents. Note: the tracked "Joseph A. Micallef" (USPTO Reg. No. 39,772) is distinct from Joseph S. Micallef, a Minnesota lawyer.