Ben Bernell represents clients in both federal and state courts, where he litigates disputes involving IP, breach of contract and internet-related claims along with antitrust, business disparagement and insurance recovery matters.
Ben represents plaintiffs and defendants in all stages of litigation proceedings, including trial, appellate and arbitration proceedings, as well as extensive internal investigations. As a federal law clerk, he learned firsthand which arguments persuade judges and juries. As a litigator, he draws on these lessons to consistently obtain successful results for his clients both in and out of the courtroom.
Representative Experience
- Representing Academy of Allergy & Asthma in Primary Care and United Allergy Services in prosecuting claims of federal and state antitrust violations and tortious interference with contract.
- Represented Qcue Inc., a provider of dynamic ticket pricing software, in securing summary judgment, invalidating a competitor’s patents and securing a ruling from the Federal Circuit affirming the victory.
- Represented Everbridge Inc., a leading provider of emergency notification services, in securing summary judgment of non-infringement over a competitor’s patent claims and securing a ruling from the Federal Circuit affirming the victory.
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- Representing dozens of policyholders in courts across the country seeking recovery under insurance property policies for losses stemming from COVID-19.
- Represented provider of ancillary medical services in investigations involving the Department of Justice in Texas and Georgia and in defending against whistleblower actions alleging violations of the False Claims Act.
- Representing Cloudera, a provider of enterprise data management and analytics software, against claims of patent infringement (Western District of Texas – Waco).
- Represented Hyperwear, a developer of high quality fitness equipment, in lawsuit alleging trademark infringement, unfair competition and similar claims relating to defendant’s unauthorized use of the “SANDBELL” trademark (Western District of Texas – Austin).
- Represented Wickfire, a provider of advanced Search Engine Marketing services, in a case involving claims of unfair competition, defamation, tortious interference with contract and similar claims arising from wrongful marketing practices (Western District of Texas – Austin).
- Representing Polaris Engineering, an oil and gas engineering and construction company, against claims related to the design and construction of a fuel storage, loading and processing facility located in Galveston, Texas (Southern District of Texas – Galveston).
- Represented Nautilus, a leading fitness equipment manufacturer, in pursuing breach of contract claims related to patent licensing agreement between Nautilus and ICON (Western District of Texas – San Antonio).
- Represented Milky Mama, a lactation supplements company, in a suit claiming trademark infringement, business disparagement and unfair competition (Western District of Texas – Austin).
- Represented The Linde Group, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, in a case involving claims of an alleged failure to pay inventor remuneration in accordance with supposedly binding company guidelines (Southern District of Texas – Houston; State District Court, Montgomery County – Houston).
- Represented RetailMeNot, the world’s largest marketplace for digital offers, in defending against claims of trademark infringement, unfair competition and dilution, and asserting fair use and first amendment-based defenses (Northern District of Texas – Dallas).
- Represented RetailMeNot in defending against claims of breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets and in asserting counterclaims for bad faith trade secret claims asserted by Wishabi (District of Delaware).
- Represented SolarWinds, a leading provider of IT monitoring and management software, in a suit dealing with a dispute over patent ownership/inventorship (Northern District of Florida – Tallahassee).
- Defended Starbucks Corporation in a five patent multi-district litigation relating to encryption technology (Western District of Pennsylvania – MDL Proceeding).
- Represented defendant Starbucks Corporation in multi-defendant patent litigation relating to interactive website technology (Eastern District of Texas – Marshall).
- Represented Valve Corporation, a Seattle-based video game development and digital distribution company and operator of the Steam gaming platform, in defending against claims of patent infringement (Eastern District of Texas – Marshall).
- Represented Stripes LLC, a publicly traded convenience store and food services company in lawsuit against TGI Friday’s alleging trademark infringement, unfair competition and similar claims relating to defendant’s unauthorized use of the “Stripes” trademark (Southern District of Texas – McAllen).
- Represented Inquisitive Minds and HTC in case involving claims that Fuhu infringed IM and HTC’s trademarks and engaged in unfair competition (Southern District of California, Western Division).
- Represented Freescale Semiconductor Inc., a leading semiconductor company, in multi-patent suit against claims of patent infringement involving ethernet technology (Eastern District of Texas – Tyler).
- Represented Cybex International, a leading fitness equipment manufacturer, against claims of patent infringement by SmartFit Solutions (Eastern District of Texas – Tyler).
- Represented Raymond Construction Company in a dispute over a data facility built in Austin, Texas involving allegations of design and construction defects and fraud in the inducement of sale (State District Court, Travis County – Austin).
Education
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J.D., University of Houston Law Center
B.B.A., The University of Texas at Austin
Admissions
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Texas
Courts
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U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas