Matthew R. Ford

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Let me verify a few more details, including the Citadel case and PTAB activity.

Matthew R. Ford — Bartlit Beck LLP (Chicago) | IP & commercial litigation

Specialty / focus areas. Ford's patent practice is concentrated in electronics and semiconductor storage — most prominently NAND flash memory forward-error-correction technology (Viasat's suits against Kioxia and Western Digital) and FPGA/low-latency computer architecture in high-frequency trading (HFT Solutions v. Citadel Securities). His firm bio and Legal 500 entry also describe work spanning medical devices (the Colibri heart-valve matter, Wright Medical foot-and-ankle/ankle-replacement patents), Hatch-Waxman pharmaceutical litigation (Bayer oral contraceptives; Gilead HIV and hepatitis C products), mechanical/industrial patents (Rolls-Royce v. United Technologies jet-engine fan blades), and trade secret and other commercial IP disputes (including representation of Reddit against Perplexity AI).

Side preference. Mixed, but consistently on the operating-company side rather than for NPEs/PAEs. The tracked list shows two defendant-side and one plaintiff-side appearance: he defends Citadel Securities in the HFT Solutions FPGA case and acts for Viasat as plaintiff/patentee in the flash-memory campaign. The broader record of clients (Viasat, Colibri, Bayer, Gilead, Pratt & Whitney, Medtronic-side work) is all operating companies; no PAE/NPE representation appears in the sources reviewed.

Firm context, bar and education. Ford has been at Bartlit Beck since 2008 — appearing as Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott in the Citadel matter and as Bartlit Beck LLP in the Viasat matters — and is a partner there. Before joining he clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; he is a 2007 magna cum laude graduate of Northwestern University School of Law (editor-in-chief, Northwestern University Law Review) and a 2001 graduate of Notre Dame. Bar admission was not independently verifiable from the sources reviewed.

Notable cases and PTAB experience. The most prominent tracked matters are the Viasat flash-memory cases: a W.D. Tex. jury awarded Viasat $229 million plus a 3.5% ongoing royalty against Kioxia (July 2026), and the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB's validity holding for Viasat in Kioxia v. Viasat (No. 24-1384, Dec. 19, 2025). He argued for Viasat in the related appeal Viasat v. Western Digital (No. 24-1483, Jan. 7, 2026), where the court affirmed the Board's obviousness invalidation of claims of the '347 patent. Also on his firm bio: the $106.5 million Colibri v. Medtronic CoreValve verdict (C.D. Cal. 2023), later reversed by the Federal Circuit on prosecution history estoppel grounds (July 18, 2025); and in the tracked Citadel case, the N.D. Ill. denial of Citadel's § 101 motion to dismiss (Dec. 1, 2025). He does appear in PTAB matters: he was admitted pro hac vice as patent-owner counsel in IPR2022-01067 (Kioxia v. Viasat) and was part of the Viasat appellate team in the IPR2022-01171 appeal — so his PTAB experience is as patent-owner-side counsel, not as a frequent petitioner.

Note on the case list: the tracked docket caption "Western Digital Technologies, Inc. v. Viasat, Inc." is recorded as a defendant-side appearance with Ford as lead counsel, but the Federal Circuit opinions arising from the related IPRs list him as counsel for Viasat (including as appellant's arguing attorney in No. 24-1483).