Melissa Hotze

Specialty / focus areas. Melissa Hotze is a Houston-based patent litigator whose docket centers on software and computer-implemented technologies. Her tracked matter, Ferid Allani v. Apple Inc. (W.D. Tex., No. 6:24-cv-00304-ADA), concerns U.S. Patent 8,271,877 — a web information-access and search method patent — and her prior work at Weil, Gotshal & Manges involved networking technology (Intel v. Alacritech IPRs) and smart-home/IoT systems (Vivint v. Alarm.com, D. Utah). She holds an electrical engineering background, consistent with a hardware-adjacent software focus.

Side preference. In the tracked case she is defendant-side lead counsel for Apple, and Law360's docket profile shows the same orientation in Ginko, LLC v. Apple Inc. (W.D. Tex., later N.D. Cal.) and Illumina Inc. v. BGI Genomics (N.D. Cal.). However, at Weil she also represented patent owners (Vivint as plaintiff in Vivint v. Alarm.com) and IPR petitioners (Intel), so she is best characterized as working both sides with a current emphasis on defending operating companies.

Firm context. Hotze is at Blue Peak Law Group LLP, a Houston-based partner-only IP litigation boutique founded by former Weil Gotshal patent litigators (including Garland Stephens and John Brinkmann). She was previously an associate at Weil Gotshal's Houston office. Chambers describes Blue Peak as a litigation boutique with particular experience representing technology-industry clients.

Notable cases and PTAB/IPR experience. Beyond the tracked Allani v. Apple matter, Hotze has substantial PTAB experience: at Weil she served on Intel's IPR teams (e.g., IPR2018-00226/-00234/-00401 against Alacritech, and oral-argument appearances in IPR2017-01391 et al.), and handled the IPR interplay in Vivint v. Alarm.com. On Allani, Apple's related IPR2025-00856 was denied institution (Nov. 2025), while a parallel French proceeding over Allani's corresponding patent ended in a first-instance invalidity/non-infringement win for Apple and Google (JUVE Patent, Feb. 2023). No jury verdicts by Hotze were independently verified.

Bar / education. B.S.E.E. and B.A., University of Texas (2003); J.D., University of Texas School of Law (2006); admitted in Texas (2006) and Wisconsin (per Martindale-Hubbell).