Overview
Chris McNett is a Principal in the Washington, DC office of McKool Smith. He focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation. Chris has worked with patent owners and technology companies to win patent lawsuits, both as plaintiff and defendant. He has been part of numerous successful trial teams in district court, and has also practiced in a large number of cases before the PTAB, in Section 337 investigations before the U.S. International Trade Commission, and Federal Circuit appeals. Chris has experience building infringement and technical benefits cases, and has worked with a large number of technical experts. Over the course of his career, Chris has helped his clients obtain over $1 billion in jury verdicts and settlements in patent infringement cases.
Chris also serves as Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University, teaching members of the Federal Circuit Bar Journal.
Chris served as a law clerk for the Honorable Jimmie V. Reyna at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and for the Honorable S. James Otero at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Chris has extensive experience practicing before district courts across the country and working with patents in numerous technical areas, including memory systems, wireless telecommunications standards, computer security, Web technologies, and a variety of other areas. He has experience in the analysis, mining, valuation, and litigation of patent portfolios. He also has represented clients before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in patent prosecution matters. During law school, he also served as a legal intern for the Civil Division, Intellectual Property Section at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prior to practicing law, Chris was a software engineer. He worked at Palm, where he developed system software and development tools for smartphones. As an undergraduate, he worked at Microsoft, developing portions of the Windows platform. He also worked in patent licensing and acquisitions at Intellectual Ventures, working to acquire and license patents across a broad range of technologies.
J.D., Harvard Law School, 2014
M.S., Computer Science, Stanford University, 2006
B.S., with highest distinction, Computer Engineering, Purdue University, 2003
- Hon. Jimmie V. Reyna, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
- Hon. S. James Otero, U.S. District Court, Central District of California
- State of California
- State of New York
- District of Columbia
- United States Patent & Trademark Office
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Central and Southern Districts of California
- U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Texas
- District of Columbia