Connor Houghton focuses his practice on both complex commercial disputes and intellectual property litigation across a wide variety of technologies. Drawing on his extensive experience, Connor works tirelessly with clients to secure favorable outcomes in challenging and strategic situations. He has participated in cases before federal district and appellate courts, the International Trade Commission (ITC), and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Skilled in patent litigation in the district courts and the ITC, Connor’s experience includes preparing and filing complaints, coordinating fact discovery, drafting motions, working with expert witnesses, conducting and defending fact and expert depositions, participating in hearings, and participating in trials before both juries and administrative law judges. Connor has also managed filing and defending inter partes review proceedings before the Patent Office. He has experience briefing complex patent issues before district courts and the Federal Circuit.

Prior to joining the firm, Connor was an attorney at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP.

Representative Matters

• Represented Cirba Inc. (d/b/a Densify) in patent litigation against tech giant VMware, including two trial successes, defending against counterclaims, and litigating proceedings at the USPTO.

  • Following a nine-day jury trial in the District of Delaware in 2020, secured a $236 million jury verdict, This achievement was recognized in The National Law Journal’s 2021 “Verdicts Hall of Fame” as the 7th largest verdict in the past five years and was also listed among the 2020 “Top 100 Verdicts” as the 8th largest.

  • Helped secure an $84 million willful patent infringement verdict on behalf of Cirba, following a five-day jury trial in the District of Delaware. After only two hours of deliberation, the jurors decided VMware willfully infringed Cirba’s patent that covers cutting-edge virtualization technology. Law.com’s VerdictSearch named the win among the “Top 100 Verdicts” of 2023 (50th largest verdict). The verdict also earned The AmLaw Litigation Daily’s “Litigator of the Week” shout out.

• Represented Corning Optical Communications in patent litigation at the ITC, including a victory finding respondents in violation of Section 337 and issued a General Exclusion Order against all infringing products, which was upheld on appeal. The win for Corning bars all infringing products from the U.S. for the life of the patents.

• Representing Broadcom in patent litigation against Netflix involving video streaming technology in multiple cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars in potential damages, including ongoing proceedings in the Northern District of California and appeals at the Federal Circuit.

• Representing Bruker Cellular Analysis, a global leader in scientific instruments with over $2 billion in annual revenue, in high-stakes patent litigation with AbCellera Biologics in the Northern District of California involving antibody discovery technology.

• Representing Valtrus Innovations, a prominent intellectual property licensing company, in ongoing patent litigation and licensing activities involving fundamental data center technologies in a portfolio of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise-originated patents. Achieved a significant victory as the Patent Office denied institution of all three inter partes reviews brought by Vertiv.

• Represented Caterpillar, a Fortune 100 global leader in construction and mining equipment, in two ITC trials and several inter partes review proceedings before the PTAB against a major competitor involving multiple patents on road construction technology. Successfully invalidated several patents and achieved exclusion order barring competitors from importing infringing products.

• Represented OPTO Electronics Co., a leading Japanese bar code scanning company, in litigation against competitor Honeywell over a patent licensing dispute involving 2D scanning technology. In a major victory, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina dismissed 95% of Honeywell’s claimed damages, leaving only a small fraction awarded at trial and at issue on appeal. The case, along with a follow-on declaratory judgment suit filed by OPTO challenging Honeywell’s litigation tactics, were resolved prior to a final decision on appeal.

• Represented Arconic in a trade secret and breach of contract dispute involving automotive aluminum processing, including defending contract and antitrust counterclaims.

• Represented renowned chef and restaurateur Emeril Lagasse in defense of a patent infringement dispute filed by SharkNinja over the popular pressure cooker appliance, the Ninja Foodi.

• Represented a variety of companies in response to subpoenas at the International Trade Commission.

Rankings & Honors

• Managing IP, IP Patent Disputes (Northeast) Firm of the Year 2025

• Law360, Intellectual Property Practice Group of the Year 2024

Publications

• Coauthor, “Federal Circuit Report: Recent Opinion in VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corporation,” New Matter (Spring 2024 Edition)

• Coauthor, “ITC Trade Secrets Claims: Why Are They Not Used More by Companies in the USA?” Chambers Expert Focus (October 17, 2023)

• Author, “Federal Circuit Report: Recent Opinion in DBN Holding, Inc v. International Trade Commission,” New Matter (Summer 2022 Edition)

• Coauthor, “ITC Seems Unlikely To Stay Investigations For Parallel IPRs,” Law360 (March 17, 2021)

• Coauthor, “ITC Dispute May Lead To PTAB Litigation Strategy Shifts,” Law360 (January 27, 2021)

Speaking Engagements

• Panelist, “Developments at the ITC: License-Based Domestic Industry,” Virtual Patent Gateway (VPG), April 20, 2022

• Panelist, “The Ins & Outs of Related Proceedings Before the International Trade Commission (ITC) and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB),” Virtual Patent Gateway (VPG), August 5, 2021