Kurt Fredrickson

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Practice profile — Kurt Fredrickson

Specialty / technology focus. Fredrickson's practice sits at the intersection of hard-science patent prosecution and patent litigation. His technical background is condensed-matter and materials physics: he holds a Ph.D. in physics (UT Austin, atomic-layer deposition and oxide thin films) and was a named inventor on semiconductor-process patents (selective metal deposition, atomic layer deposition) before practicing law. Firm announcements describe his patent work as focused on semiconductor technologies (he joined Patterson + Sheridan as a technical advisor in the San Jose office), and the profile for his current firm, O'Melveny, lists patent drafting/prosecution and inventor-side work alongside litigation. His single tracked federal appearance is in the Headwater Research campaign, whose asserted patents cover cellular/Wi-Fi data offloading, network selection, and device power management — i.e., wireless-device and network software rather than pharma or mechanical art.

Side preference. The tracked docket data show one appearance, on the defendant side, as pro hac vice counsel in a Headwater Research LLC case (0 plaintiff / 1 defendant). That one data point should not be read as a defense-side specialty: the O'Melveny profile also credits him with plaintiff-side trial work completed before he joined the firm (a Delaware jury verdict of infringement and willful infringement for a multinational electronics corporation, and a Northern California pro bono jury verdict under the Unruh Act and negligence). On the available record he appears to work both sides; the sample is too small to infer a preference.

Firm context. He is currently an associate at O'Melveny & Myers (admitted in California and before the USPTO). Prior positions relevant to IP: technical advisor at the IP boutique Patterson + Sheridan (San Jose, from 2018), law clerk at Desmarais LLP, and a judicial externship with Judge Janis L. Sammartino (S.D. Cal.).

Notable matters and outcomes. The tracked matter is a Headwater Research LLC v. wireless/consumer-electronics defendant case (E.D. Tex.) in which he appeared pro hac vice; the specific defendant and case number are not confirmed in the tracked data, and the Headwater portfolio has generated multiple parallel suits (Samsung, Verizon, AT&T, Comcast), so the particular docket is unverified. Web-verifiable results tied to him are the two trial verdicts noted above (Delaware willfulness verdict; Northern District of California pro bono verdict), both of which his firm attributes to work performed prior to O'Melveny. He also authored a Federal Circuit Bar Journal note on § 102 and patent eligibility (33 Fed. Cir. Bar J. 271 (2025)) that won the FCBA's 2023 George Hutchinson Writing Award and the Berkeley Technology Law Journal's Aldo J. Test Award.

PTAB / IPR experience. No IPR, PGR, or other PTAB appearances are documented for him in the sources reviewed. Headwater patents have been the subject of PTAB proceedings (e.g., Google IPR filings), but nothing links Fredrickson to those proceedings, so I would not describe him as having PTAB experience without confirming it.

Bar / education. California bar and USPTO registered; J.D., UC Berkeley (Order of the Coif); Ph.D., UT Austin (physics); B.S., UC Davis (physics).

Caveat: "Kurt Fredrickson" is a name shared by more than one attorney (a Minnesota IP firm, Fredrikson & Byron, appears in unrelated PTAB filings under different attorneys' names, and at least one Washington state pro hac vice filing under this name appears in a non-patent matter). The bio details above are drawn from O'Melveny and Desmarais firm sources that match on physics background and are internally consistent; the Headwater appearance is the one item I could not independently confirm to that same individual.