Philip J. Eklem

I'll research this attorney before drafting the summary.

Let me verify additional details on his ITC work, PTAB appearances, and the tracked matters.

Let me verify the Kove verdict and the Malikie matter's technology.

Philip J. Eklem — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Specialty and technology focus. Eklem is a patent trial lawyer based in the Washington, D.C. office of Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP (RJLF), with a practice concentrated in U.S. district court and International Trade Commission patent litigation. His firm and Benchmark Litigation profiles describe him handling all phases of litigation (pre-suit investigation, fact and expert discovery, Markman practice, and pre-/post-trial briefing), plus patent prosecution and licensing strategy. Reported technology areas include cloud storage systems, consumer electronics, medical devices, mechanical and electrical systems, aeronautics, automotive systems, construction machinery, and blockchain/cryptocurrency. His background is in mechanical engineering, and his tracked matters are consistent with the blockchain/crypto-facing end of that list: the Malikie Innovations matters have been asserted against crypto-mining and digital-asset defendants (Marathon Digital/MARA, Core Scientific, Foundry Digital, CoreWeave), while Valtrus Innovations has asserted former enterprise-software patents against SAP. Note that the public descriptions of the specific patents in the Malikie cases are not well documented in the sources reviewed, so no Wi-Fi or standards-essential characterization should be assumed.

Side preference. All three tracked appearances are plaintiff-side (3 plaintiff / 0 defendant), and his recent recognition — the National Law Journal/Law.com 2026 "Rising Stars of the Plaintiffs Bar" award — is expressly framed around plaintiff-side work. His own profile language is more balanced ("whether representing plaintiffs or defendants"), and the Valtrus and Broadcom matters involve patent-holder/plaintiff positions as well. On balance, his documented track record is predominantly patent-holder-side litigation, with some representation of operating companies as plaintiffs (e.g., Broadcom against Netflix) rather than a defense-side practice.

Firm context and PTAB/IPR. He spent more than six years at Finnegan before joining RJLF, and began his career as a USPTO patent examiner; he was promoted to RJLF partner effective January 1, 2026. He states that he "leads proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board," including IPR, PGR, and ex parte reexamination — the Valtrus/SAP dispute has parallel IPRs (IPR2025-00416, -00418, -00420) with RJLF appearing for patent owner Valtrus, and the Kove case involved USPTO reexaminations of the asserted patents. His tracked "In re SAP America" appearance relates to the patent-owner side of SAP's Federal Circuit mandamus petition, not an IPR itself.

Notable results (firm-reported unless noted). He is credited with a central role in the Kove IO v. Amazon Web Services cloud-storage case in the Northern District of Illinois, where the jury returned a $525 million verdict in April 2024 plus roughly $148 million in prejudgment interest ($673 million total) — reported as the largest standing patent verdict of 2024. Also credited with an $84 million willful-infringement verdict for Cirba/Densify against VMware and a $27 million verdict for Droplets against Yahoo. In Valtrus Innovations Ltd. v. SAP America (E.D. Tex.), the Federal Circuit denied SAP's mandamus petition seeking intra-district transfer (In re SAP America, Inc., No. 25-118, Apr. 10, 2025), preserving venue in Marshall. In the tracked Malikie Innovations v. Marathon Digital matter, he entered as lead counsel; a June 2026 filing in the related Malikie v. Core Scientific action shows him substituted out of the lead-counsel role (to Courtland Reichman) while remaining on the team.

Bar and education. J.D., Georgetown University (2017); B.S.E., Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan (2011). Admitted in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Indiana, with USPTO registration; admission years were not verified.