Michael R. Rhodes

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Now let me verify the tracked cases and outcomes.

Let me check PTAB appearances and a few remaining details.

Michael R. Rhodes — Patent Litigation Summary

Practice focus. Mr. Rhodes is a partner in Desmarais LLP's San Francisco office whose practice is concentrated in complex technology patent disputes. His firm biography and representative matters describe work spanning networking equipment, data-center servers, collaboration platforms, e-commerce systems, storage devices, digital cameras, Bluetooth beacons, semiconductor fabrication, and programmable interfaces. The tracked cases fit that profile squarely on the networking and wireless side: he is defending Cisco in the E.D. Tex. actions brought by Quicker Connections LLC (network access multiplexer and ring-topology patents) and by Dynamic Mesh Networks d/b/a MeshDynamics (mesh Wi-Fi and SD-WAN patents, including U.S. Patent Nos. 7,420,952, 7,885,243, 7,894,385, 8,520,691 and 11,368,537). His technical background (B.S.E. in electrical and computer engineering) aligns with this hardware- and standards-adjacent docket; nothing in the record indicates a pharmaceutical, life-sciences, or mechanical practice — the "Rhodes Technologies" entity that appears in some search results is an unrelated pharmaceutical company.

Side preference. The six tracked appearances are all on the defense side (0 plaintiff / 6 defendant), with three to four designated lead or lead counsel, and all six are Desmarais matters. In practice, however, this reflects a Cisco- and operating-company-heavy docket rather than a categorical plaintiff/defendant split: his own firm bio states he represents both plaintiffs and defendants, and his representative matters include plaintiff-side work for patent holders and NPEs, such as Intellectual Ventures against Canon (digital cameras), Round Rock Research against Nintendo and Ricoh (semiconductor fabrication), and Cisco against Uniloc and Arista. The tracked docket nonetheless shows a consistent defensive posture for large operating companies.

Firm context. Mr. Rhodes has spent his entire legal career at Desmarais LLP, joining as a summer associate in 2014, returning full-time in 2015, and being elevated to partner effective January 1, 2024. No prior law firm or in-house positions are reflected in the sources reviewed.

Notable matters and outcomes. His most prominent work is Egenera, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc. (D. Mass., No. 1:16-cv-11613), which he has handled since the 2016 filing. He was on the 2019 bench-trial team that won a district-court invalidity finding on inventorship grounds — a finding the Federal Circuit later vacated and remanded (972 F.3d 1367 (Fed. Cir. 2020)). He then helped try the August 2022 two-week jury trial in Boston, in which the jury returned a complete non-infringement verdict for Cisco against a demand exceeding $371 million plus treble damages; the Federal Circuit affirmed on July 7, 2025 (No. 2023-1428), declining to reach Egenera's unpreserved claim construction argument and upholding the denial of JMOL and a new trial. Other reported matters include Cisco's antitrust suit against Arista Networks, which settled with a $400 million payment, and the Round Rock Research semiconductor patent portfolio, licensed through RPX for a reported amount exceeding $100 million. In the MeshDynamics dispute he appears as Cisco's counsel on the December 18, 2025 stipulation dismissing the '537 patent with prejudice from the consolidated E.D. Tex. case; earlier MeshDynamics suits (Nos. 2:25-cv-472 and 2:25-cv-606) were voluntarily dismissed without prejudice in July 2025.

PTAB / IPR experience. His firm biography identifies him as a registered patent attorney who has worked on numerous inter partes and ex parte patent office proceedings, and he contributed to an IPR petition that helped invalidate an Egenera patent in the earlier phase of that dispute. Cisco's IPR campaign against the MeshDynamics patents (e.g., IPR2025-1304, IPR2025-1523, IPR2025-1569, IPR2026-8, IPR2026-127) runs parallel to litigation in which he is district-court counsel; those particular PTAB filings were signed by Desmarais colleague Tamir Packin, so I could not confirm Mr. Rhodes individually as PTAB counsel of record from the sources reviewed.

Bar and education. Admitted in New York (2015) and California (2017); registered to practice before the USPTO. J.D., Columbia Law School (2015); B.S.E. in electrical and computer engineering and economics, Duke University (2012).

Disambiguation note: this profile concerns Michael Rothschild Rhodes of Desmarais LLP (California Bar No. 319432). It does not relate to other attorneys sharing the name, such as Michael A. Rhodes of British Columbia.