Robert Patrick Hart

Robert Patrick Hart is a co-founder and partner at AddyHart LLC, a firm he established in 2018 with Meredith Martin Addy. He brings over three decades of experience in intellectual property law, spanning private practice and in-house counsel roles, including serving as Chief IP Counsel for a large specialty automotive electronics company. His practice encompasses complex patent, trademark, and copyright litigations across a diverse range of technical fields, including high-technology hardware and software, automotive systems, avionics and electronics, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and consumer products. He also specializes in entertainment law, complex contractual disputes, and rights of personality cases.

Mr. Hart demonstrates a balanced approach to patent litigation, representing both patent owners and challengers. His experience includes both plaintiff and defendant-side representations, as evidenced by his roles as lead counsel for Distefano Website Innovations, LLC in a plaintiff-side infringement suit against Bytedance Ltd. et al., and as lead counsel defending Distefano Website Innovations, LLC against Unified Patents. In the case of DiStefano Website Innovations, LLC v. Bytedance Ltd et al., asserting five patents related to web technologies, the case was transferred from the Eastern District of Texas to the Northern District of California after 409 days. An associated inter partes review (IPR2025-01061) was later instituted against one of the asserted patents. In Unified Patents v. Distefano Website Innovations, LLC, concerning patents related to creating and posting web pages, Unified Patents initiated a crowdsourcing contest for prior art, and the case was dismissed.

His practice frequently involves proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), where he has extensive experience with inter partes reviews (IPRs), post-grant reviews (PGRs), and ex parte reexaminations. Mr. Hart has represented clients in appeals from PTAB decisions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, covering technologies such as beamforming in microphones, automotive equipment, and wireless solutions in cellular 3G systems. The firm's collective experience also includes successfully challenging patents on prominent pharmaceutical drugs through Hatch-Waxman and PTAB proceedings.

Mr. Hart is admitted to practice in Texas, Illinois, the District of Columbia, and before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. He holds a J.D. and an LL.M. and possesses a technical background in chemical and petroleum engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering.