Kevin Johnson

Kevin Johnson is a prominent patent litigator and a co-chair of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP's national patent litigation practice, having founded the firm's patent practice nearly two decades ago. His practice encompasses patent infringement, trade secret, unfair competition, trademark, copyright, and licensing actions in federal and state courts, as well as the International Trade Commission (ITC). With an electrical engineering degree from Cornell, Mr. Johnson possesses deep technical expertise, frequently handling disputes involving sophisticated technologies such as smartphones, microprocessors, wireless communications (including 802.11 IEEE Wi-Fi standards), semiconductor processing equipment, software, and medical diagnostic devices.

Throughout his career, Mr. Johnson has primarily represented operating companies as defendants, including major technology firms like Samsung, Sony, MediaTek, Natera, Salesforce, and Juniper Networks. For example, he served as lead counsel for Samsung in the extensive smartphone litigations with Apple across various U.S. and international venues. While heavily weighted toward defense, he has also successfully represented plaintiffs, notably securing a $1.1 billion jury verdict for the California Institute of Technology against Apple and Broadcom in a patent infringement case related to Wi-Fi technology, a result upheld on appeal.

Mr. Johnson's notable case outcomes include a complete defense verdict for C3.aI in a bench trial, which included an award of attorneys' fees and costs, and a favorable damages verdict and defense judgment for Marvell Semiconductor in a patent suit. In a significant win for Salesforce, he obtained summary judgment of invalidity and non-infringement, leading to voluntary dismissals of other related cases. Most recently, in Motive Technologies, Inc. v. Samsara, Inc., Mr. Johnson, as lead counsel for Motive, achieved a victory in an ITC investigation, where it was determined that Motive did not infringe any valid Samsara patent claims. He also secured a $96.5 million infringement verdict for Natera Inc. in a countersuit.

He has significant experience in administrative IP proceedings, with his involvement in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings noted in the Salesforce litigation, where patents were initially invalidated then restored on appeal. Mr. Johnson began his legal career at the respected IP boutique Fish & Neave, where he opened the firm's Palo Alto office, before joining Quinn Emanuel in 2003.