Recently, Mr. Rhodes tried a two-week-patent-jury trial in the District of Massachusetts for Cisco Systems, Inc. against plaintiff Egenera, Inc. At trial, Mr. Rhodes generally assisted the trial team with all aspects of the presentation, including by conducting a cross and direct examination. For example, Mr. Rhodes prepared Cisco’s corporate representative fact witness for more than an hour of cross-examination, and Mr. Rhodes examined that same witness through both a friendly cross examination and a direct examination to elicit Cisco’s non-infringement trial themes. The Desmarais LLP trial team won a complete non-infringement defense verdict for Cisco, beating back a claim for more than 370 million dollars and treble damages. This was the second trial in this dispute. Mr. Rhodes was also a member of the 2019 trial team that successfully invalidated one of Egenera’s patents at the District Court level through a three-day bench trial. In that trial, the Desmarais LLP trial team proved through multiple adverse cross examinations that a true inventor of Egenera’s patent had been improperly removed from the cover of the patent, and that the patent was invalid due to this inventorship defect. Prior to these trials, Mr. Rhodes litigated and helped prepare the matter for the trial since Egenera originally filed suit in 2016. Mr. Rhodes worked on all aspects of the pre-trial litigation, including by helping to draft a successful motion to dismiss one of Egenera’s patents pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 101 and by providing input to an inter partes review petition that invalidated another one of Egenera’s patents.
Mr. Rhodes also works on pro bono matters. As one example, Mr. Rhodes represented an indigent defendant in an assault case and won a complete summary judgment defense for him. Before winning the case, Mr. Rhodes conducted discovery, took and defended depositions, drafted briefs, and argued before the judge.
Before joining Desmarais LLP, Mr. Rhodes attended Columbia Law School. At Columbia, Mr. Rhodes was a pro bono scholar, and Mr. Rhodes conducted dozens of mediations in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission discrimination cases. Mr. Rhodes was able to facilitate multiple settlements and case resolutions. Mr. Rhodes was also on Columbia’s Science and Technology Law Review, a journal that publishes articles related to intellectual property law and other issues at the intersection of law and technology. Mr. Rhodes also competed in the moot court competition and was an actor in Columbia Law School’s comedic play, the Law Revue.
Courts:
- United States District Court of the Northern District of California
- United States District Court of the Southern District of New York