Michael J. Bettinger

Bettinger has built up a successful practice in the four major patent litigation forums - the District of Delaware, the Eastern District of Texas, the Northern District of California and the International Trade Commission.

At the trade commission, a popular venue in which complainants attempt to win exclusion orders, Bettinger helped a joint defense team ward off patent infringement claims brought by Cupertino-based patent holding company Technology Properties Limited LLC.

In February, the commission confirmed an earlier ruling from an administrative law judge that a group of respondents that included Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and HTC Corp., did not infringe TPL patents related to the functionality of semiconductor chips.

Bettinger represented Amazon.com Inc., Acer Inc. and Novatel Wireless Inc. in commission proceedings. In the Matter of Certain Wireless Consumer Electronics Devices and Components Thereof, Inv. No. 337-TA-853 (ITC, filed July 24, 2012).

Bettinger said patent holders began pursuing complaints at the Washington, D.C.-based trade commission as an alternative to filing district court lawsuits.

"The ITC became very powerful once it was clear it would be difficult to get injunctive relief in a district court," Bettinger said. "We had 18 ITC matters in six years."

The longtime K&L Gates lawyer has noticed that infringement disputes at the trade commission have dipped recently because of ongoing questions over the qualifications for parties that can pursue complaints.

Bettinger also has represented Google Inc. and its customers as defendants in various infringement lawsuits filed in Texas and California. He said such joint defense cases require a high level of coordination with the various defendants and outside law firms.

"You can be the guy who free rides at the back and lets everyone else do the work," Betinger said.

"We try to be the one who brings everyone together, listening to positions. We try to pick an issue that we are going to take primary responsibility on."

- Kevin Lee