Bracewell

Bracewell LLP is an international law firm headquartered in Houston, Texas, maintaining a robust presence across the United States with offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Seattle, as well as international outposts in Dubai, London, and Paris. The firm operates as a large-scale legal entity, recognized by Chambers USA 2025 with numerous practice and individual rankings across various legal disciplines.

The firm's intellectual property litigation practice handles disputes across a wide range of technologies, including computer, software, energy, media, retail, telecommunication, and financial service sectors. Their patent attorneys possess diverse technical backgrounds, encompassing chemical, electrical, mechanical, industrial, architectural engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry, applied math, biology, and industrial biotechnology. Bracewell's litigation docket, based on tracked appearances, indicates a primary focus on defending operating companies in patent infringement matters. The firm has exclusively appeared on the defendant side in tracked cases.

Bracewell has notably represented defendants in patent infringement suits related to firearms technology, including Rare Breed Triggers Inc et al. v. HK Parts Inc and Rare Breed Triggers Inc et al. v. PistolCap Limited Company, et al. These cases concerned "forced-reset triggers" (FRTs) and were part of broader litigation campaigns by Rare Breed. A significant development in this area was a May 2025 Department of Justice settlement with Rare Breed Triggers, which followed a June 2024 Supreme Court ruling in Cargill v. Garland that deemed bump stocks not to be machine guns, a precedent applied to FRTs. The settlement permitted Rare Breed Triggers to continue lawful operations under specific conditions, including patent enforcement to uphold public safety. However, courts have also denied Rare Breed's requests for injunctions against other manufacturers, indicating ongoing disputes in this technology space.

The firm also maintains a significant practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the USPTO. Bracewell's IP litigation practice consistently earns high rankings, including a Band 3 designation in Chambers USA 2025 for "Intellectual Property: Patent Trial and Appeal Board." The team has extensive experience with all post-issuance proceedings, such as inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR), and covered business method (CBM) reviews, and includes former USPTO examiners, one of whom is Christopher "Kit" L. Crumbley, a former PTAB judge. Key partners in the IP litigation practice include Conor M. Civins, Michael Chibib, and Constance Gall Rhebergen, who also chairs the firm's technology team.