G. Hopkins Guy III

G. Hopkins (Hop) Guy III is a senior partner on the IP team at Baker Botts L.L.P. With almost 30 years' experience in Silicon Valley, he represents high-tech clients with complex patent, trade secret and commercial contract litigation issues.

Recent clients include Dish Network LLC, DraftKings Inc., BrightEdge Technologies Inc., Toshiba Corp., Cambium Networks Corp. and others. He has worked as lead or co-counsel on 75 Patent Trial and Appeal Board matters, including inter partes reviews and covered business method reviews.

"Some years stand out," Guy said. "This one started with the largest IP case tried in 2023." It was a decade-old patent claim in which parental-control technology maker ClearPlay Inc. asserted that Dish Network's commercial-skipping feature infringed its patents. ClearPlay Inc. v. Dish Network LLC et al., 2:14-cv-00191 (D. Utah, filed March 3, 2013).

A federal jury in Utah awarded ClearPlay $469 million. "That lasted exactly 11 days before the judge threw it out," Guy said. "The jurors were favorably disposed toward a local inventor who came up with a TV plug-in device that edited out the naughty bits and bad words. The jury liked his business, but there was no infringement."

Mid-trial, Guy and his team became aware of the way the proceedings were headed and began drafting a judgment as a matter of law motion to be filed as soon as the verdict was in. "We saw it coming. We had to be realistic. Our cross-examination of their infringement expert fell on deaf ears. The judge [Senior District Judge David O. Nuffer] had been on the bench for many years and this was the first JMOL motion he'd ever granted."

Guy's chief regret: "We were in trial just a few miles away from some of the best snow in the world, but there was no skiing for us."

That was in March. In May 2023 Guy achieved a $75 million licensing deal with Pelton Interactive Inc. following Dish's claims at the International Trade Commission, where Guy obtained favorable exclusion and cease and desist orders. The issue was streaming technology used by Peloton but protected by patents held by a company Dish acquired and integrated into its Sling TV brand. Certain Fitness Devices, Streaming Components Thereof, and Systems Containing Same, 337-TA-1265 (ITC, filed May 19, 2021).

Guy later filed an enforcement proceeding against NordicTrack's parent, iFit Health & Fitness Inc., based on the ITC outcome. In 2024, he achieved a confidential settlement.

The ClearPlay and Peloton cases showed Baker Botts' flexibility, Guy noted. "We won on both sides of the V."

-- John Roemer