Paul B. Henkelmann

I'll research this attorney before drafting the summary.

Let me dig into the tracked cases and the Federal Circuit appeal.

Paul B. Henkelmann — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Specialty / focus. Henkelmann's practice centers on patent post-issuance proceedings at the PTAB, paired with federal-court patent and trademark litigation and U.S./international prosecution and counseling. His technical range is electromechanical and consumer-product oriented rather than pharma or telecom-standards: the tracked Slingshot/Canon matters involve inkjet printheads, printer chips, and temperature sensors; his firm bio and PTAB filings list semiconductors, computer peripherals, software, plasma polymerization and nanocoating, medical devices and surgical tools, industrial machinery, automotive systems, printing/packaging equipment, and consumer products (Walmart Apollo, Caterpillar, ABB, Medline, GE, Casio among long-term prosecution clients). He came to the law from industry as a project engineer designing automated process-control equipment for a printing-industry OEM, with an undergraduate background in mechanical/electrical engineering. No Wi-Fi/standards-essential, pharmaceutical, or life-sciences pattern appears in his tracked work.

Side preference. The docket splits roughly evenly (4 plaintiff-side, 6 defendant-side appearances), but that split overstates the balance because nearly all tracked matters are one dispute in which the same client — patent owner Slingshot Printing LLC — is coded "plaintiff" in district court and "defendant" as patent owner in Canon's IPRs. Read functionally, his practice leans toward patent-owner representation: he has defended patent owners' validity in IPR (Slingshot against Canon; P2i against Favored/Jiangsu; Medline against C.R. Bard; ContentGuard against Google/Apple) as often as he has challenged patents as petitioner (e.g., HeathCo). Firm descriptions consistently state he handles both asserting and defending infringement claims, and he also does substantial freedom-to-operate and portfolio work, so he is not a single-side specialist.

Firm context. Henkelmann has spent his entire legal career at Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP (Chicago), which he joined around 2007 and where he has been a partner since January 2016. No prior law-firm history is evidenced; his only prior professional role was as an engineer before law school.

Notable matters and outcomes. Favored Tech Corp. v. P2i Ltd. (IPR2020-00478) is his clearest win: representing P2i, the team obtained a final written decision sustaining the patentability of all challenged claims of P2i's plasma-coating patent, affirmed by the Federal Circuit via Rule 36 in October 2023. In Google Inc. and Apple Inc. v. ContentGuard Holdings (2015), he was part of the team defending a digital-rights-management portfolio against 35 IPR/CBM petitions, all but one of which were denied institution. He also worked on the defense of automotive seat-weight-sensor claims in TK Holdings v. CTS Corp. (E.D. Mich.), which produced summary judgment of non-infringement and invalidity. His most prominent tracked matter, however, is adverse: Slingshot Printing LLC v. Canon U.S.A., Inc., a New York inkjet-printer suit stayed pending IPRs, where the Federal Circuit affirmed PTAB decisions invalidating the challenged claims of several Slingshot patents (Rule 36 judgment in No. 24-2132; affirmances in Nos. 24-2127 and 25-1033). Henkelmann represented Slingshot as appellate counsel alongside MoloLamken.

PTAB / IPR experience. This is the core of his practice. He reports representing clients in well over 40 IPR and CBM proceedings in lead and backup roles, including expert-declaration development, expert depositions, and oral argument, and he speaks and publishes regularly on AIA trial practice. Patexia's 2023 PTAB Intelligence Report ranked him among the top 200 best-performing attorneys representing patent owners.

Bar / education. J.D., Chicago-Kent College of Law (with honors, 2007); B.S. in General Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Admitted in Illinois and Colorado and registered with the USPTO (Reg. No. 65,891).

Note: the 10 tracked appearances are heavily concentrated in a single ongoing dispute, so this summary should not be read as a full picture of his overall docket; the bar-admission list rests on a secondary directory source (US News) and is stated with that caveat.