Miller Barondess

I'll research Miller Barondess's IP litigation practice before writing the summary.

Good background. Now let me research the specific tracked cases and PTAB activity.

Let me verify the PTAB practice and notable verdicts.

Miller Barondess, LLP — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Firm overview. Miller Barondess, LLP is a Los Angeles–based commercial litigation boutique founded in 2006 by Skip Miller, Dan Miller, Jim Miller, Mark Barondess and Sasha Frid. It is headquartered at 2121 Avenue of the Stars in Century City and, per U.S. News/Best Lawyers firm listings, maintains one U.S. office rather than a multi-city footprint. Public sources put headcount at roughly 42–50 lawyers, of which about 46 are litigators and 10 are equity partners — i.e., a regional trial-and-appellate shop, not a national BigLaw platform or a dedicated IP boutique. L.A. Times Studios (Business of Law magazine) has ranked it #15 among "Top 25 Law Firms in Litigation" (2026) and #17 (2024), and among the largest L.A. firms by attorney headcount (#68–69). No AmLaw 100/200 or Chambers IP-band ranking for the firm surfaced in this research.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's IP practice is led out of a general commercial litigation platform and is strongest in patent and trade-secret litigation over consumer products, medical devices and complex electrical/computer technology. Attorney bios describe experience in percussive therapy/wellness devices, spinal implants and biologics, insulin pumps, orthopedic implants and pedicle screws, microprocessors and graphics processors, digital mobile radios, health-insurance software, computer hardware/software, bitcoin mining, portable power generation and satellite technology. The firm's own docket footprint is narrower still: the tracked matters are concentrated in handheld percussive massage devices (Hyperice/Hypervolt and competitors' massage guns), covering the mechanical design of piston/drive mechanisms and quick-connect massage-head attachments. A separate practice lane led by Sasha Frid covers copyright, trademark, trade secret, idea theft and right-of-publicity work, largely in entertainment and music.

Side preference. The firm is not an NPE/PAE shop and does not have a plaintiff-prosecution specialty. Tracked appearances are 2 plaintiff-side and 4 defendant-side. Importantly, the plaintiff counts and several defendant counts involve the same operating-company client — Hyper Ice, Inc. / Hyperice IP Subco — which the firm represents affirmatively in its enforcement campaign (against Therabody and RENPHO) and defensively in infringement suits filed against Hyperice. In practice, then, Miller Barondess acts as brand-side patent enforcement and defense counsel for a consumer-products company, plus general IP defense work. Any characterization of the firm as regularly representing patent owners or accused infringers at large scale is not supported by the tracked record.

Notable tracked matters. The centerpiece is Hyper Ice, Inc. v. JOICOM Corp. d/b/a RENPHO, No. 8:24-cv-00098 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 2024), asserting U.S. Patent No. 11,857,482 ("Massage Device Having Variable Stroke Length") against RENPHO massage guns; plaintiff's own Rule 26(f) report estimated $10M–$30M in damages plus potential enhanced damages, and the case was stayed pending resolution of the related MerchSource action. Hyper Ice, Inc. v. Therabody, Inc. (C.D. Cal., Nos. 8:24-cv-00390 and 8:25-cv-01939) asserts the '482 and later patents against Theragun/TheraFace products; the court consolidated the Hyperice actions for pretrial purposes through a Markman hearing held April 23, 2025, with no Markman order publicly reported as of this writing. Other tracked matters — Shenzhen Kelaisiman Trading Co. v. Hyper Ice, Sichuan Qianli-Beoka Medical Technology v. Hyperice, and MerchSource, LLC v. Hyper Ice — place the firm on the defense side of the same patent family. No public verdict, Federal Circuit decision or disclosed settlement in these tracked cases was found; one tracked entry ("Untitled case," Ben Herbert — Lead Counsel) could not be verified and is excluded from this analysis. Attorney profiles claim participation in three trial teams that obtained more than $1.5 billion in IP verdicts (commonly described as an ~$855M trade-secret/copyright verdict and an ~$765–850M digital-radio verdict), but that trial record was built at Kirkland & Ellis and predates the attorney's arrival at Miller Barondess; it is not a Miller Barondess result.

PTAB / IPR practice. The firm states that practice leader Ben Herbert has "significant experience representing clients in Patent Office proceedings, including inter partes review," and before the Federal Circuit (where he clerked for Judge Kathleen O'Malley). No public report quantifies Miller Barondess's own IPR/PGR filing volume, and none of the PTAB proceedings involving the asserted Hyperice patents — e.g., Therabody-filed challenges to U.S. Patent Nos. 11,857,482 and 11,938,082, in which Hyperice is the patent owner — lists Miller Barondess as counsel of record. The firm should be treated as having a post-grant capability via lateral hire rather than an established, measurable PTAB practice.

Key partners / practice leaders. (1) Sasha (Alexander) Frid, founding partner and chair of the firm's Entertainment and Intellectual Property practices; recognized by Best Lawyers in Intellectual Property Litigation. (2) Benjamin A. (Ben) Herbert, co-leader of the IP practice and the attorney on five of the six tracked appearances; formerly a Kirkland & Ellis partner and clerk to Judge O'Malley. Caveat: publicly posted bios (2025–2026) now list Herbert at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, so his tenure as Miller Barondess's IP co-leader appears to have concluded — this materially affects the firm's current patent trial bench. (3) Jason H. Tokoro, listed in Super Lawyers for Intellectual Property Litigation. (4) Jim M. Miller, managing partner, whose practice includes intellectual property and who has handled trademark, copyright and trade-secret matters. Skip Miller appears in attorney directories with an IP litigation designation, but his public profile is built on general commercial, constitutional and public-entity trial work rather than patents.

Sources: millerbarondess.com (firm and attorney bios); Business Wire / Patent Lawyer Magazine (Nov. 2023 IP practice expansion); U.S. News–Best Lawyers firm profile; Best Lawyers firm profile; Super Lawyers firm/attorney profiles; L.A. Times Studios via millerbarondess.com; PACER/CourtListener dockets for 8:24-cv-00098, 8:24-cv-00390 and 8:25-cv-01939; Unified Patents PTAB case list; tryandai.com bio note on Herbert. Rankings and headcount figures vary across sources and are reported as of their publication dates.