Geoffrey P. Eaton, Partner

Geoffrey Eaton is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office and a member of the firm’s intellectual property and appellate litigation groups. He focuses his practice on appellate litigation and intellectual property counseling.

Appellate Litigation

Mr. Eaton has represented Winston clients in the First, Sixth, Seventh, and Federal Circuits, the Supreme Courts of several states, and the Supreme Court of the United States in a diverse array of matters, ranging from the application and scope of the dormant Commerce Clause to products liability, tax disputes, First Amendment freedoms, and civil rights claims.

A former clerk on the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, he has extensive experience in patent infringement litigation, at both the trial and appellate levels. His notable appellate wins include Orion IP, LLC v. Hyundai Motor America, 605 F.3d 967 (Fed. Cir. 2010), in which he and the Winston team invalidated a patent that had been used by a notorious patent troll to exact settlements from dozens, if not hundreds, of prominent U.S. companies; and Verizon Services Corp. v. Vonage Holdings Corp., 503 F.3d 1295 (Fed. Cir. 2007), in which he and the Verizon legal team won affirmance of a jury verdict finding that Vonage’s VoIP service infringed Verizon patents.

Mr. Eaton is a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and has successfully represented clients at both the certiorari and merits stages. In 2006-07, he co-authored two successful petitions for certiorari in major ERISA cases for Winston client MetLife. See MetLife v. Glenn, 552 U.S. 1161 (2008) and Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Hawkins-Dean, 549 U.S. 1048 (2006). In 2008, he drafted the opposition successfully defeating a petition for certiorari in a significant Lanham Act case for client McDonald's. He also regularly appears in the Supreme Court as counsel to amici curiae as diverse as The Cato Institute and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. See United States v. Stevens, 130 S. Ct. 1577 (2010) (brief for Cato Institute); United Haulers Ass'n, Inc. v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority, 550 U.S. 330 (2007) (brief in support of respondents).

Intellectual Property Counseling

Leveraging his extensive IP litigation experience and his prior experience as a corporate finance lawyer, Mr. Eaton counsels financial institutions on aspects of IP strategy. In addition to advisory services for financial institutions like Cantor Fitzgerald, Mr. Eaton has given presentations on financial intellectual property in both public and private settings. His public presentations include:

• “Trolls 2.0: Evolution of the Non-Practicing Entity,” 8th Annual Financial Patents for Financial Services Summit, New York, July 27-28, 2011.
• “Guarding the Crown Jewels: Protecting and Monetizing Financial IP Assets,” PwC High-Frequency Trading Roundtable, New York, Oct. 19, 2011.

Activities

Education