Hodgson Russ

I'll research Hodgson Russ's patent litigation practice before writing the summary.

Let me dig into the tracked cases and the firm's rankings/PTAB activity.

Let me verify key IP litigation partners and the firm's PTAB activity.

Hodgson Russ LLP — Patent Litigation Practice Summary
Prepared October 1, 2026

Firm overview. Hodgson Russ LLP is a full-service, general-practice law firm founded in 1817 and headquartered at The Guaranty Building, 140 Pearl Street, Buffalo, New York. It is not an IP boutique or a patent-focused shop; it is a regional-to-super-regional business firm with an Am Law 200 profile. Its office footprint spans Buffalo, Albany, New York City, Rochester, and Saratoga Springs, NY; Hackensack, NJ; Greensboro, NC; Palm Beach, FL; and Toronto, Ontario. On size: the firm is commonly described as an Am Law 200 firm with roughly 200 attorneys. Law.com's profile places Hodgson Russ 198th on the 2025 Am Law 200 with $139.877 million in 2024 gross revenue and 188 attorneys per the NLJ 500; the firm reported ~225 lawyers in late 2024 after absorbing the Rochester litigation boutique Ward Greenberg. Rankings vary by source and year, so treat the precise headcount as approximate.

IP litigation specialty. Hodgson Russ's IP litigation group prosecutes and defends patent, trademark, copyright, trade-secret, and idea-misappropriation claims, and handles ITC proceedings and TTAB oppositions/cancellations, per the firm's own practice description. Its stated technical strengths are broad rather than concentrated in one sector: medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, chemical engineering, software, semiconductors, solar, nanotechnology, mechanical and electro-mechanical systems, aerospace components, ballistic fabrics, and consumer products. The firm has earned Best Lawyers/U.S. News "Best Law Firms" Metropolitan Tier 1 rankings in both Litigation–Intellectual Property and Patent Law (self-reported). On Wi-Fi/standards issues specifically, the tracked matters involve wireless/over-the-air printing technology rather than cellular or IEEE 802.11 standards-essential patents.

Side preference. In the tracked data, Hodgson Russ appears exclusively on the defense side — 0 plaintiff-side and 2 defendant-side appearances, both in the firm's capacity as local counsel. That said, the firm's own marketing materials state it represents "both plaintiffs and defendants," so the defense-only pattern reflects the limited sample of tracked federal patent suits rather than a stated litigation posture. Both tracked entries are the same underlying dispute (Flexiworld v. Xerox) logged under slightly different case captions, so the firm's tracked patent-litigation footprint is effectively a single matter.

Notable cases and outcomes. The tracked matter is Flexiworld Technologies, Inc. v. Xerox Corporation, filed June 29, 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York (6:23-cv-06371; related dockets 6:23-cv-06370 and 6:23-cv-06373), assigned to Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr. Flexiworld — described in third-party litigation databases as an NPE/small-company licensor — asserted wireless and network printing patents against Xerox. Eric J. Ward entered his appearance for Xerox in August 2023, with Claire E. Wells also listed on the defense team; McKool Smith served as co/lead counsel and Hodgson Russ as local counsel. The actions were dismissed with prejudice in 2024 by joint stipulation under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(ii), each party bearing its own costs and fees — meaning no merits ruling, verdict, or injunction. Separately, the firm's practice materials list other results (e.g., dismissal of biocide-formulation patent litigation in the Eastern District of Texas; defense of a ballistic-fabrics manufacturer), but these are firm-generated descriptions rather than independently verified public outcomes.

PTAB / IPR practice. Hodgson Russ states that it handles post-issuance proceedings and inter partes reviews before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and at least one attorney (George L. Snyder, a registered patent attorney) lists a "Patent Office Inter Partes Review of Medical Device Patent" among representative matters. I could not locate a public report quantifying the firm's IPR/PGR filing volume, so any scale figure would be unsupported; treat the PTAB practice as present but not documented as high-volume.

Key partners / practice leaders. Nathaniel W. Lucek leads the firm's Intellectual Property & Technology practice and has significant semiconductor and IP-transaction experience, and is described as a member of the IP litigation practice with district court and Federal Circuit support experience. George L. Snyder is a long-tenured registered patent attorney (mechanical/electro-mechanical, medical devices) with IPR and infringement matters. John T. M. DiMaio, Ph.D., and Jodyann Galvin appear on the IP litigation team roster; Neil B. Friedman is a frequent TTAB practitioner. Eric J. Ward is the litigation partner appearing in the tracked patent suits, and Claire E. Wells also appeared for Xerox. I could not independently confirm a current, formally titled "IP Litigation Practice Group leader" beyond the firm's IP & Technology practice leadership, so that distinction should be verified directly with the firm before reliance.

Sourcing note: firm overview and office data from the firm's website and Law.com/Am Law 200 coverage; case details from PACER docket records via UniCourt, Justia Dockets, and third-party litigation databases (PatSnap, Unified Patents); practice descriptions from Hodgson Russ's own IP litigation and IP & Technology PDFs. Attorney counts, revenue, and rankings vary across sources and should be re-verified before publication.