Kurt L. Glitzenstein

Kurt L. Glitzenstein is a Principal and the Litigation Practice Group Leader at Fish & Richardson, where he specializes in high-stakes intellectual property litigation. With an engineering background that includes a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, his practice spans a wide array of technologies. These encompass mechanical and electrical products, computer software, embedded systems, autonomous vehicles, industrial devices, lasers, fiber optics, robotics, and medical technologies, including electrotherapeutic, diagnostic, and coronary devices.

Mr. Glitzenstein primarily represents operating companies as a defendant in patent disputes. His experience includes defending major technology companies like Microsoft in complex patent cases. His firm, Fish & Richardson, is noted for handling a significant volume of patent litigation on the defense side. He regularly appears in U.S. district courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. International Trade Commission, and his practice actively incorporates Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings into overall litigation strategies.

He has played a key role in several notable cases, including leading the appellate team in Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation, a case involving software anti-piracy technology that famously rejected the 25% rule-of-thumb for calculating patent infringement damages. He also led the appellate team in Williamson v. Citrix, a precedent-setting decision that modified patent law concerning functional claim language, making it easier to challenge overbroad patents. Other significant outcomes include securing a $31.2 million jury verdict in a patent battle over tire pressure monitoring systems and a $20 million jury verdict in a medical device patent infringement case involving knee replacement technology. Additionally, he obtained a $175 million settlement in a long-running competitor-to-competitor litigation that spanned multiple venues, including the PTAB.

Mr. Glitzenstein earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1993, where he was an Executive Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology.