Overview
John Cotiguala is Of Counsel in the Intellectual Property practice group of Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s Chicago office. His practice focuses on intellectual property disputes relating to patents, trade secrets, and trademarks across a broad range of technologies, including electronic trading computer software, wireless communication, encryption, optical identification devices, video compression, cryopreserved hepatocyte preparations, golf clubs, oil and gas extraction, and solvent cements.
Mr. Cotiguala has substantial experience in all phases of intellectual property litigation, including notice letters, opinion work, pre-lawsuit investigation and evaluation, pleadings, temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions, pretrial hearings, motion practice, fact and expert discovery, claim construction briefing, trial, settlement discussions, and appeals.
Mr. Cotiguala also dedicates significant time to various pro bono matters, including matters for Lawyers For the Creative Arts and The Settlement Assistance Program.
Prior to attending law school, Mr. Cotiguala developed software in the telecommunications and product life cycle management industries, gaining a unique technical and business perspective that he now applies in his intellectual property practice. Mr. Cotiguala also created a consulting firm that managed electronic discovery projects for attorneys.
Recognitions
- Named “Illinois Rising Star” in Intellectual Property by Thomson Reuters (2018-2023)
Education
- Chicago-Kent College of Law, J.D., 2012, Certificate in Intellectual Property
- Purdue University, B.S., Computer Science, 2004
Representations
- Represented high-performance golf equipment company Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG) in a variety of intellectual property and litigation matters, both foreign and domestic.
- Secured a favorable outcome for international charting and trading software leader CQG LLC, in a nationally-prominent patent infringement action brought by Trading Technologies involving patents directed to graphical user interfaces for trading commodities. Following a three-week jury trial in the Northern District of Illinois, the jury found that CQG did not indirectly infringe, infringe under the doctrine of equivalents, or willfully infringe the asserted patents, and awarded only $15.8 million in reasonable royalty damages when plaintiff originally sought $783 million.
- Represented CQG and various co-defendants including Crossland L.L.C., CV Futures, LLC, Dorman Trading LLC, Dorman Trading Company, Inc., E D & F Man Capital Markets Inc., R.J. O'Brien & Associates LLC, Redcape LLC, Rosenthal Collins Group L.L.C., The Price Futures Group, Inc., Trade Futures 4 Less, Trad FX Futures, Trade Pro Futures, and Wedbush Futures in a patent infringement action brought by Chart Trading Development in the Eastern District of Texas.
- Represented Celsis In Vitro, Inc. before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Northern District of Illinois in a patent case regarding methods for creating multi-cryopreserved hepatocyte preparations. That representation secured an appellate victory, where in a precedential opinion, the Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s decision that the asserted patent was invalid for improperly claiming patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101.