Chipman Brown Cicero & Cole

Firm overview. Chipman Brown Cicero & Cole, LLP (CBCC) is a Delaware boutique headquartered at Hercules Plaza in Wilmington, with a second office in New York. The firm self-describes as a boutique litigation and bankruptcy shop staffed by partners who trained at large multinational firms, offering BigLaw experience at lower rates. It is not an AmLaw 100 firm or a dedicated IP boutique; its recognized strengths, per Chambers USA (2025–2026), are Delaware Chancery litigation (Band 4) and bankruptcy/restructuring (Band 3) — areas in which it holds firm-wide and individual rankings. It has no comparable IP-specific ranking.

IP litigation specialty. CBCC's IP practice is expressly structured as Delaware local counsel work: the firm states that "since its inception," its lawyers have served as Delaware counsel to the nation's leading intellectual property practices, navigating the District of Delaware and the preferences of individual district judges. Its attorneys handle "all types of intellectual property disputes, across all major industries." The tracked matter in the firm's portfolio — Earin AB v. Skullcandy, Inc. (D. Del.) — involves wireless-earbud/True Wireless Stereo consumer electronics patents, but the firm's docket spans software (IpLearn v. Blackboard), graphical user interfaces (Softview v. Apple), and fitness-tracker sensor hardware (LoganTree v. Fossil, LoganTree v. Omron), so no single technology vertical dominates.

Side preference. CBCC's tracked appearances are thin — one total, on the plaintiff side, in a local-counsel capacity (Joseph B. Cicero in Earin AB v. Skullcandy). That single data point should not be read as a plaintiff-leaning franchise: the firm publicly states it represents both plaintiffs and defendants, and its broader IP docket confirms mixed-side work. Notably, in 10X Genomics, Inc. v. Vizgen, Inc. (D. Del.), Cicero entered an appearance for defendant Vizgen, and in LoganTree LP v. Fossil Group, Inc. the firm's Gregory Stuhlman appeared for plaintiff LoganTree. The practice is best characterized as dual-side local counsel rather than dedicated plaintiff or defendant advocacy.

Notable cases or outcomes. The most prominent tracked matter is Earin AB v. Skullcandy, Inc., a District of Delaware suit in which Swedish plaintiff Earin asserts wireless-earbud patents against Skullcandy; related Earin v. Skullcandy actions filed in 2025 and 2026 were slated for trial before Judge Richard G. Andrews in fall 2026. Beyond the tracked list, Stuhlman has served as Delaware local counsel in high-profile D. Del. patent cases including Softview LLC v. Apple Inc., Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc. v. LG Electronics, and the WOW Tech adult-device IP dispute, in which Osha Bergman's trial team (with Stuhlman as local counsel) won a $12.8 million jury award — a publicly reported result. His LoganTree work also produced a notable 2024 ruling in LoganTree LP v. Fossil Group, Inc. denying summary judgment of non-infringement on a motion-sensor patent.

PTAB / IPR practice. No evidence was found of a notable PTAB/IPR or PGR filing or defense practice at CBCC, and nothing in the firm's own marketing or Chambers profiles suggests one; its IP work is court-centered Delaware litigation. Partners with the most relevant IP exposure are Joseph B. Cicero (tracked lead on Earin v. Skullcandy, Chambers-ranked in Chancery, formerly of Greenberg Traurig) and Gregory E. Stuhlman (Super Lawyers Rising Star whose bio lists the firm's Delaware IP engagements). Paul D. Brown and William E. Chipman Jr. are Chambers-ranked firm leaders, though primarily in Chancery and bankruptcy, respectively.