John McKee is a trial lawyer who handles high-stakes patent and technology disputes in every major forum: federal district court, the International Trade Commission, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and the Federal Circuit. He has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and he has applied that training in cases spanning diverse technologies including the Android operating system, anti-malware software, magnetic backup tapes, vaporizer devices, portable PPG devices, and the 3G, 4G LTE, and 5G NR cellular standards.
John has tried multiple patent cases to verdict in the Eastern District of Texas, where he helped Samsung secure a rare noninfringement verdict against Evolved Wireless. At the ITC, he has tried numerous investigations through evidentiary hearing, including obtaining an exclusion order for Juul Labs barring NJOY's ACE vaporizers. John was named to Patexia’s 2026 list of the top 50 ITC attorneys nationwide.
At the PTAB, John is one of the most active petitioner-side practitioners and has been ranked among Patexia’s top 100 attorneys representing petitioners, reaching #8 in 2020. He has been lead counsel for Sony, Gogo, and others, and has argued at multiple hearings for clients including Samsung, IBM, and BlackBerry, obtaining favorable final written decisions. He also represents patent owners, including Sony and Juul Labs, where the Board upheld every challenged claim. John carries that work through appeal, defending his clients’ wins at the Federal Circuit.
John is ranked by IAM Patent 1000, Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America, Lawdragon 500 Global IP Lawyers, and The Legal 500 United States.
- Samsung Electronics
- Samsung Display
- IBM
- MediaTek
- Wolfspeed
- Qualcomm
- Juul Labs
- TSMC
- Yahoo!
- Verizon
- BlackBerry
- Sony
- GoGo
- CloudByte
- Skillz Platform
- Hanwha Qcells
- On behalf of Samsung, in a case brought by Evolved Wireless, achieved a rare noninfringement verdict in the Eastern District of Texas.
- On behalf of Juul Labs, obtained an exclusion order at the ITC preventing NJOY from importing its ACE vaporizer devices into the US market. The exclusion order covered all asserted patents. John also represented Juul Labs at the PTAB, where all but one IPR was denied institution and the remaining IPR resulted in all claims being found patentable.
- On behalf of Gogo, obtained institution denial in an IPR involving a key counterclaim patent in an ongoing dispute between Gogo and SmartSky.
- On behalf of IBM, obtained a Final Written Decision from the PTAB finding all asserted claims of a patent owned by Trusted Knight invalid. John argued on IBM’s behalf at the Federal Circuit and this decision was upheld on appeal.
- On behalf of Samsung, obtained a Final Written Decision from the PTAB finding all asserted claims of two asserted patents invalid. Arguments focused on secondary considerations, put at issue by patentee Kannuu during the hearing. The Board’s decision rejected these secondary considerations arguments.
- Represented IBM in two litigations involving related patents. In the first, invalidated all claims as indefinite at claim construction. This indefiniteness ruling was upheld by the Federal Circuit. In the second, litigated through the end of fact discovery while filed IPR was pre-institution. Case was stayed pending resolution of the IPR, and patentee’s motion to amend to add claims post-institution was denied.
- Represented Sony against FUJIFILM in two IPRs as Patent Owner. The Board issued a Final Written Decision upholding the validity of all challenged claims. The case settled prior to appeal.
- Represented Qualcomm in two ITC investigations as well as co-pending district court cases related to trade secret misappropriation. The initial determinations in these cases led to the global settlement between Qualcomm and Apple.
- On behalf of Samsung, defeated Apple’s requests for ongoing royalties following a jury verdict of infringement, a Federal Circuit panel decision reversing the verdict in Samsung’s favor, and a reversal by the en banc Federal Circuit.
- Boston College Law School
(J.D., 2010) - The University of Texas at Austin
(B.S., Electrical Engineering, 2007)
- The State Bar of New York
- United States District Court:
- Southern District of New York
- Eastern District of New York
- Eastern District of Michigan
- Eastern District of Texas
- United States Court of Appeals:
- Federal Circuit
- Registered to Practice Before the United States Patent and Trademark Office
- Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto:
- Associate, 2010-2012
- Ranked by IAM 1000, Recommended Individual, United States: New York, 2026
- Ranked among Patexia's Top 50 ITC attorneys nationwide, Patexia ITC Intelligence Report, 2026
- Ranked as a “Recommended Lawyer” by The Legal 500 United States, Intellectual Property: Patents: Litigation (Full Coverage), 2025
- Ranked by Lawdragon 500 Global IP Lawyers, IP, Litigation, Patent, Post-Grant, 2025
- Ranked by Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America, 2025-2027
- Recognized by IAM Patent 1000 2025: Next Generation: Recommended individual
- Ranked in The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for Litigation – Intellectual Property, Patent, 2024-2027
- Selected as a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” for New York, 2014-2025
- Ranked among Patexia’s Top 100 attorneys representing Petitioners