Ryan Justin Schletzbaum

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Ryan J. Schletzbaum — Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP (Kansas City, MO)

Focus areas. Schletzbaum's practice is complex patent (and some copyright) litigation across telecommunications/networking, GPS and marine navigation, smartwatch/wearable technology, enterprise software, and consumer products including athletic apparel. Shook's 2018 new-partner announcement described his practice as "intellectual property litigation for telecom and consumer electronics companies." Representative matters span voice-over-packet/VoIP and optical (SONET) networking patents, marine navigation and bow-sight technology, and smartwatch sensors. There is no indication of pharma or life-sciences patent work, despite Shook's broader product-liability footprint in those industries.

Side preference. The tracked record is narrow — two appearances, both on the defense side at Shook, both as counsel — and the tracked matters are not identified by name, so those two entries cannot be matched to specific cases. Publicly documented work shows he operates on both sides of patent disputes, but for operating companies rather than NPEs/PAEs: he defended Apple, Garmin, Nike, and Comcast, and he affirmatively asserted patents for Sprint as a practicing telecommunications carrier. Nothing in the sources indicates NPE-side monetization work.

Notable matters. His most prominent result is Sprint Communications Co. v. Time Warner Cable (D. Kan.), where a jury in March 2017 found all 19 asserted claims of five VoIP patents infringed and willful, and awarded Sprint $139.8 million — the largest patent verdict in Kansas history, recognized in the NLJ's Verdicts Hall of Fame and as the second-largest IP verdict of 2017. Schletzbaum developed the willfulness case, examined witnesses at trial (including cross-examination of Time Warner's technical expert on written description), and briefed the appeal; the Federal Circuit affirmed in a 2-1 decision (Nov. 30, 2018, opinion modified Mar. 18, 2019 on rehearing), and the Supreme Court denied certiorari on Nov. 4, 2019. He also worked the Sprint v. Comcast Cable (D. Kan.) 12-patent voice-over-packet matter, which his firm bio states settled for a publicly reported $350 million on the eve of trial, and the related D. Del. SONET case in which Sprint's $27.6 million verdict was vacated on JMOL of non-infringement and affirmed by the Federal Circuit in 2017. Defense-side work includes McDavid v. Nike (invalidity of reissue claims), Garmin v. Navico/C-MAP, FLIR Maritime v. Garmin, Burris v. Garmin, and a smartwatch case against Valencell coordinated with IPRs.

PTAB/IPR. He appears regularly in PTAB proceedings under Reg. No. 70,850, on both petitioner and patent-owner sides — for example, Apple as petitioner (including Masa LLC v. Apple, IPR2016-00748, where the Federal Circuit affirmed the Board in 2018), and as lead counsel for CamelBak in Trove Brands v. CamelBak (IPR2024-01137), with related filings in IPR2024-01501.

Firm/background. He has been a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon since March 2018; no prior firm is identifiable in the sources, and his litigation docket runs continuously through Shook from roughly 2009. Martindale lists a B.S. from Kansas State University (2004), a J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law (2009), and admission to the Missouri bar in 2010 (note: Martindale still lists him as an associate, which is outdated relative to Shook's 2018 partner announcement).