Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin

I'll research the firm's profile and IP litigation practice before drafting.

Let me dig into the firm's IP group page, the related AOI cases, and PTAB activity.

Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin, Law Corporation — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Firm overview. Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin, Law Corporation ("Weintraub Tobin") is headquartered at 400 Capitol Mall, Sacramento, California, and operates five California offices — Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Newport Beach/Orange County, and San Diego. It is a mid-size, full-service California business law and litigation firm, not BigLaw and not an IP boutique; the firm traces its roots to 1852 and describes itself as California's oldest firm. Chambers' Spotlight California profile states the firm has "more than 80 attorneys"; Vault's profile describes "about 75 attorneys," and a U.S. News/Best Law Firms practice-area breakdown lists roughly 12 IP attorneys against 18 litigators firm-wide. Chambers ranked the firm in the 2026 Chambers Spotlight California guide for Mergers & Acquisitions (its second consecutive year); that recognition is corporate, not IP. I found no AmLaw 200 ranking or AmLaw revenue figure for the firm and cannot verify either.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's IP litigation page describes a patent, trademark, copyright, and trade-secret practice spanning electronics; wireless communication devices and protocols; Wi-Fi-enabled devices; semiconductors, packaging, and fabrication; microprocessors/microcontrollers; memory devices; in-home networking; set-top boxes; smartphones and smart TVs; power conversion; software; 3D printing; medical devices; and biotech/pharma chemistry. The public docket is narrower than that marketing description. The firm's tracked federal patent work is concentrated in fiber-optic/optoelectronic transceiver technology: in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. v. Eoptolink Technology USA Inc., No. 5:24-cv-08165-NW (N.D. Cal.), asserted patents cover optical transceiver modules, optical subassembly alignment, optical coupling, and multilayer flexible printed circuits with RF/DC isolation. Partner-level representative matters published by the firm relate to wireless data transmission, MoCA home networking, flash/EEPROM memory, flip-chip bonding, 3D printing, and integrated circuits.

Side preference. The structured case list shows 3 plaintiff-side and 1 defendant-side appearance, all credited to the same two attorneys (Jo Dale Carothers and Eric A. Caligiuri). Importantly, this is not NPE/PAE work: the client is Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AOI), a Nasdaq-listed optical transceiver manufacturer — i.e., an operating company asserting its own patents. The single defense-side entry is the mirror declaratory-judgment caption Eoptolink Technology USA Inc. v. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc., in which AOI is the named defendant. Nuance and caveat: the firm also routinely appears on the defense side of patent matters, including Patent Owner-side work in IPRs and ITC Section 337 defense work for Novatel, Entropic, and Formlabs. The tracked universe here is small (4 appearances, essentially two client groups), so it should be read as a concentrated, relationship-driven patent docket rather than a high-volume plaintiff or defense shop.

Notable cases and public results. The firm is lead counsel to AOI in the six-patent Eoptolink action, filed November 19, 2024. In that case AOI defeated (via withdrawal) Eoptolink's Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss portions of the first amended complaint in July 2025, after AOI pointed the court to the denial of a substantially similar motion in AOI's parallel case against Accelight Technologies. Judge Noel Wise's September 8, 2025 case management order set claim construction for April 22, 2026 and a 5–8 day jury trial for February 8, 2027. The parties jointly moved to stay the case pending four IPR petitions Eoptolink filed between October and December 2025 (IPR2026-00019, -00094, -00122, -00123) plus planned ex parte reexaminations of two further patents; the PTAB record shows Carothers as Patent Owner's counsel in those proceedings. AOI's related suits against Molex, Cambridge Industries USA, and Accelight were reportedly stayed or settled (Molex). I found no verdict, judgment, or verified settlement amount in any tracked case. Separately, Carothers' published bio reports a successful Federal Circuit argument in Greenliant Systems, Inc. v. Xicor LLC and ITC/Section 337 work for Entropic Communications, Microchip Technology, and Samsung — these are firm-published representative matters, not independently verified outcomes.

PTAB / IPR practice. The firm has a genuine but modest PTAB footprint rather than a standalone IPR practice group. Carothers is a registered patent attorney who litigates before the PTAB on both sides and defended AOI's patents in IPR2025-00436 and related proceedings; the Eoptolink IPRs list her as Respondent (Patent Owner) counsel. Audrey Millemann is also identified as having represented clients in AIA post-grant proceedings and TTAB matters. The firm's IP litigation page advertises PTAB experience, but no public report quantifies the firm's filing volume, institute rate, or win rate — I could not source any such statistic and would not estimate one.

Key partners. Jo Dale Carothers, Ph.D. (shareholder, San Diego) is the driving force behind the patent docket and headed the firm's Intellectual Property Group; she is a registered patent attorney, a former tenured electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Arizona, an IEEE Senior Member, listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 2018 for IP litigation, and repeatedly listed in San Diego Super Lawyers (2014–2026). Eric A. Caligiuri (San Diego) focuses on patent and trade-secret litigation in federal and state courts and the ITC, and was named a Rising Star in 2019. Audrey A. Millemann (shareholder, Sacramento) is a registered patent attorney with 30-plus years of patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret and antitrust litigation experience in E.D./N.D./C.D. Cal., and PTAB/TTAB practice. Scott M. Hervey (Sacramento) leads the firm's trademark/copyright-side IP work and is a frequent IP commentator, though his profile is soft-IP rather than patent litigation. Note: firm announcements from 2025/2026 indicate litigation and other group leadership transitions (e.g., Jessica Corpuz as Litigation group leader), so current IP group leadership should be confirmed directly with the firm.

Sources: Weintraub Tobin IP Litigation page, weintraub.com; Chambers Spotlight California firm profile (chambers.com); Weintraub Tobin firm overview and merger release; Vault and U.S. News/Best Law Firms firm profiles; CourtListener docket 69391936 (Applied Optoelectronics v. Eoptolink, N.D. Cal.); joint administrative motion to stay and IPR/PTAB correspondence (ptacts.uspto.gov); firm bio PDF for Jo Dale Carothers; Meritas bio for Audrey A. Millemann; IPVerse/GreyB PTAB case page for IPR2026-00123 (third-party aggregator).

Limitations: no AmLaw/AmLaw 200 ranking, revenue figure, or firm-wide IPR volume statistic was verified; one tracked entry in the structured list is untitled, and the defense-side Eoptolink declaratory-judgment caption could not be independently confirmed within my search window.