Kent & Risley / Kent Law

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Kent & Risley LLC — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Firm overview. Kent & Risley LLC is an intellectual‑property and complex‑civil litigation boutique founded in February 2016 by Daniel A. Kent and Stephen R. Risley, and headquartered at 5755 North Point Pkwy, Alpharetta, Georgia (metro Atlanta). The firm describes itself on its website as "a group of five former large‑firm partners," and Martindale‑Hubbell lists the office size as five lawyers — i.e., a small regional IP litigation shop, not BigLaw. No AmLaw or firm‑level Chambers ranking is publicly available; recognition appears at the individual‑attorney level only (Chambers USA listing for Dan Kent is asserted on the firm's own bio, and both Kent and Risley carry Martindale‑Hubble AV ratings). Kent & Risley is the successor to Kent Law, P.C. (Kent's solo practice, 2010–2016), which is how the two names are combined in the tracked docket data. Attorney profiles list admissions and work in Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana, but the firm's one confirmed office is Alpharetta.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's own practice description emphasizes IP and complex‑civil litigation and trial work — patent, trademark, trade secret, and copyright — through post‑grant proceedings at the USPTO and appeals to the Federal Circuit, supplemented by local‑counsel work for national firms in Georgia courts. The tracked case confirms the flagship technology lane: Wi‑Fi and wireless networking. In CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. Technicolor Connected Home USA LLC, No. 1:22‑cv‑02827 (N.D. Ga.), the asserted patents (including U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,891,807, 7,463,596, and RE44,904) were directed to Wi‑Fi gateways, routers, and access points, and the complaint attached the Wi‑Fi Multimedia Technical Specification. Other publicly visible work centers on electronic communications and software/networking (IngenioShare's "network‑based portal" patents; the Alexsam payment‑card patents), with attorney bios also listing historical matters in semiconductors, medical devices, VOIP/call‑recording software, streaming media, and DDR4 memory.

Side preference. On the structured data, the firm has one tracked appearance, on the plaintiff side, as local counsel — no tracked defendant‑side work — so the sample is far too small to support a statistical claim about side preference. The broader public record points the same direction, toward patent‑owner/plaintiff representation: Kent & Risley appeared for patent owner IngenioShare in the Epic Games IPRs and appeal and for patent owner Alexsam in covered‑business‑method reviews, and Kent served as Georgia local counsel for CommWorks Solutions, an affiliate of the Georgia NPE IPInvestments Group asserting patents acquired from Intellectual Ventures. Partner bios self‑report substantial plaintiff‑side NPE docket volume (see below). The firm's website markets itself as serving both enforcement plaintiffs and defendants, but verifiable recent public appearances skew patent‑owner side, and Georgia local counsel is clearly a recurring engagement type.

Notable matters and outcomes. The tracked case, CommWorks v. Technicolor, was filed in July 2022 and the docket reflects subsequent closure without a publicly reported judgment, verdict, or settlement figure; Kent's role was local counsel behind Kheyfits Belenky attorneys. The most significant verifiable public result is Epic Games, Inc. v. IngenioShare, LLC, Nos. 23‑2177 et al. (Fed. Cir. Apr. 24, 2025) (nonprecedential), in which Stephen Risley represented the patent owner and the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB's claim construction and non‑obviousness holdings across four IPRs (IPR2022‑00202, ‑00291, ‑00294, ‑00295) — a genuine appellate win for the firm's client. That win did not carry into the parallel district court action: in IngenioShare, LLC v. Epic Games, Inc., No. 5:25‑cv‑00385 (E.D.N.C.), Judge Richard Myers granted Epic's motion and dismissed the complaint with prejudice on § 101 grounds on June 4, 2026. Note that the IngenioShare matters are not reflected in the firm's tracked case list, so they are presented here as public record rather than as tracked appearances.

PTAB / IPR practice. The firm has a real but modest, patent‑owner‑side PTAB practice rather than a high‑volume challenger practice. Public filings show Kent & Risley representing patent owner Alexsam, Inc. in Samsung‑era covered business method reviews CBM2017‑00041 and ‑00042 (Steve Risley as lead counsel, Dan Kent as backup), defending IngenioShare across four Epic Games IPRs and the ensuing Federal Circuit appeal, and appearing as lead PTAB counsel in a February 2023 petition filing. No public report quantifies the firm's aggregate IPR/PGR filing volume, and none should be inferred.

Practice leaders. Daniel A. Kent (founding partner; Duke Law; former founding partner of Fish & Richardson's Atlanta office, plus Jones Day and Alston & Bird) is the firm's most senior IP trial lawyer and the attorney of record in the tracked case. Stephen R. Risley (founding partner; head of the firm's litigation group; registered patent attorney) handles the appellate and PTAB work, including the IngenioShare appeal. Cortney S. Alexander (partner; Rose‑Hulman mechanical engineering; ex‑Finnegan) is the firm's highest‑volume patent litigator — his directory profile self‑reports lead counsel in over 120 patent infringement litigations, largely for licensing/NPE‑type clients such as Diatek Licensing, DigiMedia Tech, Bright Capture, Sunflower Licensing, Mallard Licensing, and 21st Century Garage; that figure is self‑reported and not independently verified. Olivia E. Marbutt (partner; Emory Law; ex‑Jones Day) focuses on patent litigation and counseling across medical device, data security, and communications technologies.