Sean P. Connolly

I'll research this attorney before writing the summary.

Sean P. Connolly — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Specialty / focus areas. Connolly is an Omaha-based IP litigator at Kutak Rock LLP, where the firm identifies him as a member of its Intellectual Property Practice Group. His tracked patent matters center on computer networking, network security, and data-processing patents — the asserted Intellectual Ventures II patents involved packet-level access-control/firewall technology (U.S. Pat. 6,826,694) and network data collection and analysis (U.S. Pat. 6,715,084) — litigated against financial-institution clients, so his case experience skews toward software/networking and financial-services technology rather than pharma or mechanical arts. He is separately a registered patent attorney with a chemical-engineering background, though no tracked case in this dataset reflects that technical area.

Side preference. The docket profile is predominantly defense-side. Across the five tracked appearances (2 plaintiff-side, 3 defendant-side), the underlying matter is the same campaign: Intellectual Ventures II's assertion of networking patents against banks, with the bank parties captioned both as infringement defendants and as declaratory-judgment/IPR plaintiffs against the NPE. In practice, Connolly represented the operating companies (Compass Bank/BBVA Compass, Commerce Bancshares, First National Bank of Omaha) in PTAB and district-court proceedings against the patent holder — including service as petitioner-side counsel and backup PTAB counsel. There is also at least one patent-owner-side PTAB role (see below), so his experience is not exclusively defense-side, but the operative pattern is defending accused operating companies and supporting offensive IPR challenges for them, not prosecuting for NPEs/PAEs.

Notable cases and outcomes. The most prominent tracked matters are the consolidated Intellectual Ventures II proceedings captioned Intellectual Ventures II LLC v. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. and Compass Bank v. Intellectual Ventures II LLC. Connolly's name appears on PTAB filings in this campaign (including IPR2014-00786 and related IPRs) alongside Kutak Rock colleagues Jason S. Jackson and Niall A. MacLeod. The related Federal Circuit appeal, Intellectual Ventures II LLC v. Compass Bank, Commerce Bancshares, Inc., First National Bank of Omaha (No. 2016-1416), was affirmed in December 2016, leaving the Board's cancellation of claims 26, 28, and 30–33 of the '084 patent intact and mooting the banks' cross-appeal — a favorable outcome for the client side Connolly supported. I could not verify a specific individual argument or authorship credit for Connolly in that appeal; colleague Jason Jackson argued the appeal.

PTAB / IPR experience. Connolly appears regularly in AIA post-grant proceedings. Beyond the IV bank IPRs, he is listed as backup counsel for patent owner Zircore, LLC in IPR2017-00081 (U.S. Pat. 7,690,920), and appears on the petitioner-side service lists in multiple IV-related IPR/CBM proceedings (e.g., IPR2014-00786, -00801, -00719, -00721, -00722, -00724). This supports a conclusion of established IPR practice on both petitioner and patent-owner sides, though most of it arises from a single client campaign.

Firm context and bar/education. Current firm: Kutak Rock LLP (Omaha), where he has been listed as an IP partner since roughly 2013; the firm's client alerts and PTAB filings use his Kutak Rock Omaha address and contact. Reported earlier firm history (Foley & Lardner; Husch Blackwell Sanders; Advent LLP) appears in third-party directories but I could not confirm it from a primary firm biography, so treat it as unverified. Education and admissions, per a public attorney-directory profile (not a firm bio): J.D., University of Iowa College of Law (2004, with high distinction); B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; admitted in Wisconsin (2004) and Nebraska (2007) and registered to practice before the USPTO. These credential details should be independently confirmed before reliance.