DNL Zito

I'll research this firm before writing the summary.

Let me verify the tracked cases and firm details.

DNL Zito — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Firm overview. DNL Zito (which also appears in court filings as DNL Zito Castellano PLLC) is a Washington, D.C.–based intellectual property boutique established in 1989, with its principal office at 1250 Connecticut Avenue NW (though filings reference both Suite 200 and Suite 700 at that address). The firm's own site notes attorneys in Washington, D.C. and Europe; a Los Angeles address (355 S. Grand Ave.) appears in third-party business directories but I could not confirm it on the firm's website. All available indicators — third-party company data estimating fewer than 25 employees, and a small public docket footprint — point to a small IP boutique, not BigLaw. I found no reliably sourced AmLaw, Vault, or Chambers ranking for this firm, and no published headcount or revenue figures; any size characterization beyond "small IP boutique" would be unsupported.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's practice description emphasizes communications, computers/software, electronics, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, mechanical, automotive, medical, biotechnology and materials engineering, plus trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and ITC Section 337 work. Its tracked and publicly reported litigation is concentrated in telecommunications and software: Sampo IP (collaborative communications / push-notification systems), Lab Technology (mobile communications), and Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems (streaming/broadcast patents) in the Valve litigation. Public dockets also show electronics and consumer-product enforcement (an LED lighting design patent; barrel products) and an automotive licensing campaign (Wyoming Technology Licensing, Inc. v. American Honda, Mercedes-Benz USA and Volkswagen Group of America, N.D. Tex.). Firm materials also describe a fixed-fee and contingency-fee litigation model with a contract-attorney staffing approach — relevant to how it handles patent-monetization matters.

Side preference. The tracked dataset shows 2 appearances, both plaintiff-side (1 lead counsel, 1 appearing counsel). That aligns with patent-owner/monetization work: Sampo IP, LLC was a wholly owned subsidiary of publicly traded NPE Marathon Patent Group, and Lab Technology LLC is identified by Unified Patents as an NPE. However, the firm's own materials state it represents both plaintiffs and defendants, and public filings confirm meaningful defense-side work — Joseph Zito substituted in as lead counsel for Leigh Rothschild and affiliated entities in Valve Corp. v. Rothschild (W.D. Wash.), where the firm has briefed Noerr-Pennington and litigation-privilege defenses. Net read: patent-owner-leaning, with a real (if secondary) accused-infringer practice.

Notable matters. Sampo IP, LLC v. Blackboard, Inc. et al. (E.D. Va. 2:13-cv-00601, filed Nov. 7, 2013) is the firm's most prominent tracked case: Zito as lead counsel asserted three "Centrifugal Communication and Collaboration Method" patents (U.S. 6,772,229; 6,161,149; 8,015,495) against Blackboard and Salesforce.com. I could not verify a judgment or specific settlement in that action; Marathon's public reporting referenced settlements across its portfolios generally, not this case. Lab Technology LLC v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless (E.D. Tex. 2:24-cv-00323, Judge Gilstrap) was dismissed on joint motion Dec. 4, 2024 after Verizon Communications, Inc. was dismissed without prejudice and the caption amended to Cellco; Benjamin Deming appeared among plaintiff's counsel. Separately, the Federal Circuit issued a Rule 36 judgment (No. 25-1764, Sept. 11, 2026) in a nonprecedential appeal argued by Zito for plaintiffs-appellants.

PTAB / IPR practice. Verified PTAB activity exists but is modest in public view. USPTO filings show firm attorneys in inter partes review proceedings — e.g., a December 2024 petition in which Erik N. Lund was lead counsel, with Deming and Zito on the team, for Patent Owner Cardiacsense Ltd., and a power-of-attorney filing for CANVS Corporation signed by Zito. One third-party analytics aggregator (Ex Parte AI Lab) reports roughly 418 proceedings with about a 90/10 patent-owner/challenger split; given the firm's small district-court footprint, I could not corroborate that scale and would treat it as unverified. No published firm-level IPR volume report was found.

Key people. Joseph J. Zito (name partner; lead counsel in Sampo; argued the 2026 Federal Circuit appeal; now lead defense counsel in the Valve/Rothschild matter). Erik N. Lund (registered patent attorney; lead IPR counsel). Benjamin C. Deming (registered patent attorney; counsel of record in the Lab Technology matter). René A. Vazquez (active in W.D. Wash. filings and listed on the firm's Law360 profile).

Caveat: the tracked dataset (2 appearances) clearly understates this firm's public docket. The additional matters above come from court filings, USPTO records and press releases, not from the tracked case list, and are cited as such. Directory-sourced credentials for individual attorneys (peer-rating claims, reported-decision counts) were not independently verified and are omitted here.