AddyHart

I'll research AddyHart's profile, practice, and key personnel before drafting.

Let me dig into the specific tracked cases and the firm's PTAB work.

AddyHart — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Firm overview. AddyHart (also styled AddyHart P.C. / AddyHart LLC) is an intellectual property litigation boutique founded in 2019 by Meredith Martin Addy and Robert P. Hart, headquartered at 401 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago. The firm's own site lists offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, and Irvine, Calif., while third-party directories (U.S. News & World Report) count three offices and eight lawyers, five of them partners. Chambers USA describes it as "a boutique intellectual property litigation practice" and ranked it Band 5 for Intellectual Property – Illinois in both the 2025 and 2026 guides (its first firm-level rankings). It is not an AmLaw-ranked firm and does not appear on the AmLaw 100/200; the correct characterization is a small, specialist IP shop with an appellate emphasis.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's practice description and Chambers profile point to complex patent litigation and appeals across software, avionics/electronics, automotive, pharmaceuticals and bioengineering, and entertainment, with Chambers noting particular strength in Hatch-Waxman matters and in PTAB and Court of Federal Claims work. The tracked docket bears that out: mobile payments/wallet software (Fintiv), virtual-reality motion tracking (Thales Visionix), cellular 3G/wireless (Thales DIS), automotive components and manufacturing (Wildcat Licensing, Navistar matters in Addy's bio), and pharma/consumer products (Sampo IP v. Avon). Addy's Chambers biography also notes court appointments as a special master and court-appointed expert in encryption, database security, guided-vehicle, and medical-device cases.

Side preference. The firm works both sides but skews patentee/plaintiff. Of the seven tracked appearances, five are plaintiff-side and two defense-side, and its roles are weighted toward lead counsel and appellate counsel. The defense-side work is genuine and substantive rather than incidental: representing Thales Visionix as patent owner against eight Meta Platforms IPRs, defending DiStefano Website Innovations against a Unified Patents challenge, and defending Apple-initiated proceedings on behalf of DH International. The firm's own description frames a client base running from Fortune 1000 companies to smaller entrepreneurial businesses.

Notable cases and public outcomes. The most prominent verified result is Fintiv, Inc. v. Apple Inc., No. 23-2208 (Fed. Cir. May 16, 2025), where Addy argued and the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded the Western District of Texas's summary judgment of non-infringement, holding that circumstantial evidence and expert analysis — not source code alone — can establish infringement of software claims. The related appeal Fintiv, Inc. v. Apple Inc., No. 24-1345 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 30, 2025), was dismissed as moot after the companion Fintiv v. PayPal decision. The firm also represented patentee Thales Visionix in its Court of Federal Claims case against the United States over F-35 helmet-mounted display technology (settled on terms the firm describes as favorable), and in the Meta IPR series. The remaining tracked matters — High Velocity Capital v. VIZIO, DiStefano Website Innovations v. Bytedance, Sampo IP v. Avon, and Mozido v. Apple — do not have publicly verifiable verdicts or settlements in the sources reviewed; they should be treated as concluded or pending without reported outcomes.

PTAB / IPR practice and key personnel. PTAB work is a core competency rather than a sideline. The firm states it regularly appears before the Board and has acted on both sides: as petitioner's counsel in IPR2021-00815; as patent owner's lead counsel in Meta Platforms v. Thales Visionix (IPR2022-01304/01305/01308, consolidated oral hearing December 2023); and as patent owner's counsel for DH International against Google (IPR2024-01321) and Apple (IPR2025-00172). No public report gives an aggregate IPR/PGR filing count, so no scale figure is offered here. Practice leaders are co-founders Meredith Martin Addy (Chambers Band 1, Intellectual Property – Illinois, for 21 consecutive years, 2006–2026; Chambers attributes to her more than 100 district court matters and over 100 Federal Circuit appeals, and she is a former member of the Federal Circuit's Advisory Council and co-founder of the Richard Linn American Inn of Court) and Robert P. Hart (co-founder, registered patent attorney, frequent IPR lead counsel). Charles A. "Chad" Pannell III and Benjamin Cappel appear repeatedly in the Fintiv appellate and PTAB teams, with Paul N. Tauger and Gregory B. Gulliver also active in tracked matters.

Sourcing: addyhart.com (About, practice and attorney bios), Chambers USA 2025–2026 firm and lawyer profiles, Federal Circuit opinions and PACER dockets (23-2208, 24-1345, 25-2104), USPTO PTAB filings (IPR2021-00815, IPR2022-01304/01305/01308, IPR2024-01321, IPR2025-00172), U.S. News Law Firm profile, and Best Lawyers/Super Lawyers listings. Office footprint varies slightly across sources; the four-city list above reflects the firm's own current site.