Overview
Alan Billharz is an associate in the IP Litigation practice of Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Alan’s practice is focused on patent and trade secret litigation in the field of information technology. He has successfully litigated cases in district courts, in the ITC and at the PTAB. His experience spans a variety of computer hardware and software technologies, including speech recognition and natural language processing, audio capture and processing, video streaming and analytics, semiconductor fabrication, graphics processing, wireless communications systems and server and cloud backup.
Alan is a registered patent attorney and he clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Prior to law school, Alan worked in both software engineering and strategic planning roles at Microsoft, with a focus on networks, web development tools and cloud-based productivity applications. He is a named inventor on two issued U.S. patents.
Alan earned his law degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and holds a Master’s of Public Policy from the University of Chicago, a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in Computer Science from Duke University, cum laude.
Recognitions
- CALI Excellence Award for Intellectual Property Appellate Advocacy
- Named inventor on two issued U.S. Patents
Education
- Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. (magna cum laude), 2015
- The University of Chicago, M.P.P., 2012
- Duke University, B.S. / B.A. (cum laude), 2002
Representations
- Meta Platforms in an eight-patent case relating to noise suppression and voice activity detection technology.
- Meta Platforms in invalidating scores of asserted claims directed at messaging technology and photo tagging at the PTAB.
- Google in multiple federal court cases in Texas and California involving Google’s Nest thermostats.
- 3M’s M*Modal against Nuance in two patent cases involving 14 patents related to speech transcription and voice recognition systems.
- NVIDIA in an ITC Investigation directed at automotive infotainment system hardware.
- Xperi in multiple infringement actions relating to semiconductors, circuitry, packaging and image processing, obtaining a favorable settlement.
- A Taiwanese manufacturer in a Delaware patent infringement case against a competitor, obtaining a rare permanent injunction.
Matters may have been handled prior to joining Paul Hastings.
Engagement & Publications
- Published an article on electronic importation in the ITC Trial Lawyers Association’s 337 Reporter
Involvement
- Law clerk and intern to two circuit judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit