Nix, Patterson & Roach

Nix, Patterson & Roach, L.L.P. (also known as Nix Patterson, LLP) is a national contingency fee law firm with a significant presence in Texas, with offices in Texarkana, Daingerfield, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso, as well as Oklahoma offices in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma City, and Norman. The firm is recognized for its work in complex commercial and intellectual property matters, often representing plaintiffs and operating on a contingency-fee basis. While specific AmLaw or Chambers rankings are not consistently published for the firm, its estimated 52 employees and $8.4 million annual revenue indicate a prominent regional firm with national reach in specialized litigation.

The firm's patent litigation practice primarily focuses on representing patent holders, including non-practicing entities (NPEs) or patent assertion entities (PAEs), across a diverse range of technologies. A core area of expertise has been financial services technology, specifically electronic check processing, image capture, centralized processing, and electronic storage systems, prominently featured in its work for DataTreasury Corporation. Additionally, the firm's attorneys have backgrounds spanning electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, and chemistry, enabling representation in cases involving computer systems and medical devices.

Nix, Patterson & Roach has a strong plaintiff-side preference in patent litigation, with seven of its eight tracked appearances being for plaintiffs. The firm achieved substantial success representing DataTreasury Corporation, recovering over $350 million for the client and resolving more than 50 patent infringement lawsuits for a total value exceeding $750 million. Notable outcomes include a $54 million judgment for willful patent infringement against U.S. Bank (which stemmed from a $27 million jury verdict subsequently doubled by the court) and a settlement during trial against Bank of America. The firm was also instrumental in obtaining a $95.7 million verdict, enhanced to over $115 million with an 8% running royalty, for Syntrix Biosystems in a patent infringement case against Illumina, a case the firm highlights as one of its multi-million dollar verdicts. While DataTreasury Corporation settled with JPMorgan Chase & Co. in 2005, a later dispute over a most-favored-licensee clause resulted in a $69 million refund for JPMorgan from DataTreasury, affirmed on appeal.

Key partners in the firm's IP litigation practice include Nelson J. Roach and C. Cary Patterson. Nelson J. Roach served as lead counsel in multiple DataTreasury cases, securing significant verdicts and settlements. C. Cary Patterson, a founding partner, also played a vital role in the DataTreasury litigation and has experience with administrative patent proceedings, including an appeal from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to the Federal Circuit, where the validity of DataTreasury's patents was upheld after re-examination. Derek Tod Gilliland, another prominent attorney who previously oversaw the firm's IP litigation practice, was a key member of trial teams for major IP verdicts, including DataTreasury and Syntrix, before his appointment as a magistrate judge in the Western District of Texas. Harold C. Nix, Jr., a founding partner, also served as Lead Counsel in DataTreasury litigation.