Profile
Thomas Pease is a member of the firm’s Patent Litigation and Intellectual Property & Technology Groups. He has served as lead trial counsel in patent and trade secret cases across a wide range of industries, including cellular telecommunications, Wi-Fi, semiconductors, machine learning and artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency/blockchain/DeFi, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals.
Tom has deep experience in standard essential patents and has represented net licensors, net licensees, as well as companies that straddle the line between them in virtually every kind of dispute involving such patents and the RAND/FRAND licensing commitments that often govern them including district court and ITC litigation, arbitration, investigations before the FTC, the DOJ, and DG Comp., license negotiations, and the design and implementation of worldwide litigation strategies. Relevant standards include ETSI/3GPP 3G, 4G, 5G, ITU-T H.264/H.265, IEEE 802.11 and the like. Tom has also designed and implemented patent monetization programs, designed and challenged patent pools, and drafted and negotiated licenses for numerous clients, ranging from startups to Fortune 50 companies and has deep relationships with litigation funders. Outside of IP, Tom has litigated cases involving the intersection of antitrust and IP law as well as those involving the financial services industry.
Tom frequently teaches courses and otherwise speaks on a variety of topics including FRAND licensing and litigation, trade secret litigation, IP monetization, and the legal issues presented by generative AI and crypto/blockchain/DeFi technologies.
The attorney is providing legal services through and affiliated with Greenberg Traurig, LLP, a New York Limited Liability Partnership. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Capabilities
Experience
- Serving as co-lead counsel for Samsung in an ED Tex action and related IPR proceeding involving a patent on lithium ion battery technology asserted against Android phones and tablets.
- Serving as co-lead counsel for Samsung in an ED Tex action and a related IPR proceeding involving a patent on dual mode wireless charging technology asserted against Android phones with Wireless Powershare capability.
- Serving as co-lead counsel for Samsung in matters involving the assertion of SEPs against Android phones and tablets with 4G and 5G capability.
- Serving as co-lead counsel for LG Electronics in ED Tex action involving four patents on various aspects of video decoding.
- Serving as co-lead counsel for Hyundai Motors and Kia in an ED Tex action involving a single patent on sensor calibration for self-driving cars.
- Serving as counsel for Hyundai Motors and Kia in an ED Tex case involving six patents asserted against various aspects of speech recognition and navigation systems in vehicles.
- Served as counsel for Samsung in an ED Tex case and related IPR proceedings involving six patents against Android phones and tablets that allow photos to be tagged using both automatic image recognition and speech-to-text conversion.
- Represented a company in negotiations with the Access Advance, Via/LA and Velos patent pools for H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC) video encoding and decoding technology.
- Served as lead counsel for Taction Technology, Inc. in a Southern District of California action involving two patents on haptic technology asserted against Apple iPhones.° Defeated institution of all four Apple IPRs.
- Served as co-lead counsel for Coinbase Global, Inc in the defense of an action brought by Veritaseum in the District of Delaware on a single patent asserted against the processing of transactions using “blockchain” technology and “cryptocurrencies,” in the context of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana-based cryptocurrency protocols.° Consulted on IPR.
- Served as co-lead counsel for Stronghold Resource Partners, LLC in an action brought by Enverus, Inc. in Travis County Court in Austin Texas involving allegations of breach of contract and misappropriation of proprietary information.
- Served as co-lead trial counsel for Samsung in a series of global litigations against both Apple and Huawei, including actions in the Northern District of California and the ITC involving 3G/UMTS and 4G/LTE SEPs, a wide range of competing FRAND defenses and claims, including rate setting and antitrust claims and counterclaims°
- Served as counsel for Samsung in various matters brought by Ericsson in the ED Tex and the ITC.
- Served as trial counsel for MediaTek in an ITC investigation involving the assertion of four NXP patents against MediaTek’s IEEE 802.11ax compliant products and RAND defenses.
- Served as co-lead counsel for Samsung in a series of cases involving the assertion of declared essential patents acquired from LG Electronics against 4G/LTE-compliant products.°
- Represented KeyMe, LLC, a manufacturer and supplier of key duplication kiosks that use deep neural networks and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) algorithms for key reproduction in defensive and offensive patent infringement lawsuits in the Eastern District of Texas and District of Delaware against Hillman.°
- Served as co-lead counsel for RareGen, LLC in an antitrust action pending in the District of New Jersey involving restraints placed on the availability of cartridges for use in the administration of generic treprostinil, a drug for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).°
- Represented the ResCap Liquidating Trust in scores of RMBS actions against correspondent lenders, relating to the origination and sale of billions of dollars of defective residential mortgages; recoveries exceed $1.3 billion.°
- Served as co-lead counsel for Hong Kong Konka Ltd. in an arbitration in the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre concerning the Advanced Audio Coding Patent License Agreement and its AAC essential patent pool.°
- Served as co-lead counsel for MediaTek and Barnes & Noble in a multidefendant patent infringement suit brought by Australia's national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in the Eastern District of Texas against manufacturers of Wi-Fi chipsets and consumer devices that contain such chips based on an SEP, subject to RAND obligations, that was alleged to cover the IEEE 802.11 a, g, n, and ac wireless standards.°
- Served as lead counsel for International Game Technology (IGT) in a suit against its competitor, Leap Forward Gaming, Inc. (LFG) in the District of Nevada.°
- Served as lead trial counsel for Cabeau, Inc., a world-leading supplier of comfort products and travel gear, in related cases in the Southern District of New York and the Central District of California involving a design patent, trade dress and unfair competition claims.°
- Served as trial counsel for Dexcel in a series of Hatch-Waxman cases in the District of New Jersey concerning Dexcel's patented OTC-omeprazole formulations.°
- Served as trial counsel for Infineon in the original Rambus case, a closely-watched patent infringement lawsuit involving SDRAM and DDR SDRAM memory chips and standard-setting defenses based on Rambus’ breach of the JEDEC patent policy.°
- Represented Sony in the licensing and litigation of Sony’s color television and monitor patents in a series of actions in the ITC, the Central District of California, and other venues.°
- Served as trial counsel for IBM in a patent, trade secret, and antitrust action in the Southern District of New York relating to PSI’s attempt to emulate IBM mainframe architecture and operating system technology.°
°The above representations were handled by Mr. Pease prior to his joining Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, IAM Patent 1000, 2013-2024
- Listed, Super Lawyers magazine, New York Super Lawyers, 2015-2024
A description of the selection methodology for the above awards can be found here. No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
Credentials
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J.D., magna cum laude, St. John's University School of Law, 1994,
- Articles and Notes Editor, John’s University Law Review
- B.S., Electrical Engineering, Boston University, 1989
- New York
- New Jersey
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit