Shawn Blackburn

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Shawn Blackburn — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Focus areas. Blackburn is a Houston-based partner at Susman Godfrey LLP whose IP practice spans both patent litigation and general commercial disputes. His docket skews toward electronics, networking, and telecom: he was part of the Susman Godfrey trial team in Finesse Wireless LLC v. AT&T Mobility LLC (E.D. Tex.), concerning 4G/LTE/5G passive intermodulation technology; he represented Caltech in its Wi-Fi patent suit against Samsung; he worked on Rockstar Consortium v. Google (search-related advertising patents, E.D. Tex.); and he prosecuted Packet Intelligence LLC v. Cisco Systems (deep packet inspection). He also handles mechanical/energy work (Canrig Drilling Technology v. Trinidad Drilling, oil-well drilling technology) and life sciences, including Promosome LLC v. Pfizer/BioNTech, an mRNA patent case. He holds a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology, which supports the biotech matters.

Side preference. The tracked list is an even 4 plaintiff / 4 defendant split, and the firm's own description states he represents both plaintiffs and defendants. In practice his patent plaintiff-side work is concentrated with universities, research institutions, and licensing entities — Queen's University, Caltech, Rockstar Consortium, Packet Intelligence, WSOU Investments (d/b/a Brazos Licensing), Finesse Wireless, and ChargeLogic LLC, which third-party reporting (Unified Patents) characterizes as an NPE. The defendant-side entries in the tracked list appear to correspond to mirror-image IPR/protective proceedings in the same disputes (e.g., ChargeLogic appearing as patent owner against Tesla's petitions), rather than to a distinct operating-company defense practice.

Notable cases and outcomes. His most cited victory is In re Queen's University at Kingston (Fed. Cir. 2016), where he drafted the supplemental brief and argued before the Federal Circuit as an associate, securing the first appellate recognition of a patent-agent privilege — the basis for his 2017 National Law Journal "IP Trailblazer" recognition and a Managing IP Editor's Choice Award. In Rockstar Consortium US LP v. Google Inc., he led Markman briefing that won 39 of 40 disputed terms; the case settled and coincided with a reported $900 million portfolio sale. In Finesse Wireless, the jury returned a $166.3 million verdict in January 2023 (later a roughly $181 million judgment) against AT&T and Nokia, which AT&T has appealed. Caltech v. Samsung settled in August 2023 before trial, terms undisclosed, and the Promosome action was dismissed by stipulation in October 2023 with a covenant not to assert the patent at issue. His most recent tracked matter is ChargeLogic LLC v. Tesla, Inc. (W.D. Tex., filed March 2026).

PTAB / bar / education. He appears in PTAB proceedings on both sides — listed as lead counsel on a petitioner's power of attorney in Zillow Inc. v. IBM Corp. (IPR2020-01656) and representing patent owner ChargeLogic in Tesla's 2026 IPR petitions (e.g., IPR2026-00382, IPR2026-00377). He is a registered practitioner before the USPTO (Reg. No. 68,424) and a member of the State Bar of Texas. He earned his J.D. at Columbia Law School (2011), a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania, and molecular biology degrees from Brigham Young University, and he clerked for Judge Sharon Prost of the Federal Circuit before joining Susman Godfrey.

Note: the published record is thin on the four untitled tracked matters, so their subject matter and posture could not be independently verified.