Dykema Gossett

I'll research Dykema's IP litigation practice and verify key facts before drafting.

Let me dig into the firm's IP practice page, PTAB activity, and the tracked cases.

Firm overview. Dykema Gossett PLLC (commonly branded "Dykema") is a full-service national firm headquartered at 400 Renaissance Center in Detroit, with its largest office historically in Chicago and roughly a dozen offices concentrated in the Midwest and Texas (Bloomfield Hills, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.). By size it is an AmLaw 200 / "largest 350" general-practice firm rather than an IP boutique: ILRG's 2025 ranking puts it at #135 nationally by attorney headcount with about 355 attorneys and 190 partners, and Vault/ILRG both place it in the top-150 range. It is not a specialized patent shop; IP sits alongside litigation, corporate, automotive, real estate, and energy practices.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's own practice description emphasizes patent, trademark, trade dress, copyright, trade-secret, false-advertising, and unfair-competition litigation, with technical depth in electrical, chemical, and mechanical engineering, computer technology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, telecommunications, and automotive. Automotive is the standout sector given its Michigan base, and the firm's IP department director served as a principal author of the Northern District of Illinois Local Patent Rules. Reported experience spans semiconductor devices, power meters/smart grid equipment, medical devices, MEMS microphones, in-vehicle infotainment, optical media, and edible oils — i.e., a mechanical/electrical and life-sciences mix rather than Wi-Fi standards or semiconductor-fab specialty work.

Side preference. On the record captured here the firm is balanced — one plaintiff-side and one defendant-side tracked matter (roles logged as counsel in one and local counsel in the other). That matches the firm's self-described posture: it "represent[s] operating companies, including both patent owners and accused infringers," and separately markets substantial experience defending companies targeted by non-practicing entities. The firm's own attorney bios list NPE defense engagements (Acacia/Paul Ware, Blue Spike, DataTreasury, GeoTag, Landmark Technology, Webvention, Wolf Run), so the practical tilt is toward defending operating companies, with selective offensive enforcement for product companies. It is not an NPE/PAE plaintiff shop.

Notable cases and outcomes. The most prominent tracked matter is ABC IP, LLC and Rare Breed Triggers, Inc. v. Hanes Tactical LLC and Damion Terrell Bennett (W.D. Tex. No. 3:25-cv-00200/201, later coordinated into MDL No. 3176), where Dykema's San Antonio member J. Daniel Harkins appears as local counsel; it is one of six related suits enforcing U.S. Patent Nos. 12,038,247 and 7,398,723 against numerous sellers of "Super Safety" forced-reset trigger products, with the plaintiffs seeking a consolidated preliminary injunction. The second tracked matter is a defendant-side engagement led by William D. Ellerman that the structured data leaves unnamed, so no case facts can be responsibly reported. Publicly claimed results from firm materials include a "record-setting" jury verdict of more than $100 million in a patent case, a $1.6 million damages award trebled to $4.8 million plus fees for a specialty binding-materials manufacturer, and an early venue-based dismissal (affirmed on appeal) for a medical-device client in a multi-defendant patent suit.

PTAB / IPR and practice leaders. Dykema states that it represents clients in inter partes and post-grant reviews and ex parte reexaminations, and its IP litigation page lists the PTAB among the tribunals it routinely appears before; attorney Michael A. Dorfman's bio notes participation in "some of the earliest inter partes review proceedings." That said, no public report supporting a specific IPR/PGR filing volume was found, and the two tracked district-court matters show no companion PTAB proceedings — so a "notable IPR practice" cannot be asserted on the available evidence. Practice leadership: J. Daniel Harkins (Director, Intellectual Property & IP Litigation Department; San Antonio) is the clearest named leader; other recognized IP litigation partners include Michael P. Adams (Austin), Steven M. Zeller (Chicago/Illinois, registered patent attorney), Michael A. Dorfman (Chicago), Reed R. Heimbecher (Minneapolis), and Thomas T. Moga (automotive IP, Michigan).

Caveat: the structured case list contains only two tracked appearances, one of which is unnamed, so this summary should not be read as a complete picture of the firm's patent docket. Rankings and results above are limited to what firm pages, ILRG/Vault, and public court filings support; no independently verified PTAB volume or AmLaw revenue figure was available.