Bradley Caldwell
Brad Caldwell is one of the nation’s most preeminent trial lawyers focusing on patent infringement and complex commercial litigation for plaintiffs and defendants. His success before judges, juries, and arbitration panels includes cases involving digital media, telecommunications, computer networking, semiconductors, computer chips, data security, computer imaging, medical devices, enterprise software, banking technology, and oilfield services.
Brad has been named a “Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar” by Law360 twice, most recently following a $502.8 million verdict against Apple in 2020. He has also been named “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer magazine two separate times based on record-setting patent infringement verdicts against Apple. Those jury awards of $625.6 million and $302 million ranked as the nation’s 6th and 9th largest during 2016. A year earlier, he helped Smartflash LLC win a $532.9 million verdict against Apple, which was the year’s top Texas verdict, the largest intellectual property verdict nationally, and the third-largest U.S. verdict overall.
In addition to trying seven jury trials to verdict against Apple and winning them all, Brad has secured patent-infringement verdicts against Microsoft, Samsung, LG, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Depuy Synthes, and other companies with tremendous resources to pour into litigation. Overall, these verdicts total over $3 billion against businesses Brad’s clients believed were using their patented technologies without permission.
Before starting his legal career, Brad worked for a year as an electrical engineer at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia, where he obtained a top-secret security clearance and was awarded multiple merit-based citations.
Court Admissions
Texas State Courts
New York State Courts
U.S. District Court for the Eastern 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 Missouri
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
U.S. Supreme Court
University of Texas School of Law
J.D., 2003, with high honors
Dean’s Achievement Award for Patent Litigation
Order of the Coif
Texas A&M University
B.S. Electrical Engineering, 2000
American Board of Trial Advocates, Member (2024-present)
500 Leading Litigators in America (2023-present) – Lawdragon
Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar (2021, 2019) – Law360
Texas Verdicts Hall of Fame (2019) – Texas Lawyer
Texas Super Lawyers Top 100 (2019) – Thomson Reuters
American Bar Foundation (Life Fellow)
U.S. Firm to Watch (2018) – Managing IP
Texas Intellectual Property Litigation Department of the Year (2017) – Texas Lawyer
#1 U.S. Plaintiffs’ Patent Firm – IAM Patent 1000 The World’s Leading Patent Professionals
Best Law Firms (2017-present) – Best Lawyers
The Best Lawyers in America (2016-present) – Best Lawyers
Litigator of the Week (2016, twice) – The American Lawyer
Best Lawyers in Dallas (2016-present) – D Magazine
Top 100 U.S. Verdicts of 2016 (3 verdicts) – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch
Intellectual Property Trailblazer (2016) – The National Law Journal
#1 Texas Intellectual Property Verdict (2016) – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch
Top 50 Recoveries (2015-2016) – The National Law Journal
Top Patent Damage Awards Won Since 2000 – Law360
Top 100 U.S. Verdicts of 2015 – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch
#1 Texas Intellectual Property Verdict (2015) – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch
Texas Super Lawyers (2015-present) Thomson Reuters
In late 2012, Brad helped VirnetX win a $368 million verdict when a federal jury determined that Apple had infringed four VirnetX patents to produce the VPN On Demand and FaceTime features in the popular iPhone and other Apple products. After the case was sent back for a new trial on damages, we won again with a $625 million verdict for VirnetX in February 2016 after jurors in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found that Apple continued to infringe VirnetX’s patents following the first trial to produce the FaceTime and re-designed VPN On Demand features. The jury also found Apple’s infringement was willful regarding FaceTime and VPN on Demand. The court later vacated its order to consolidate the matters and set the cases for two separate jury trials focusing on different versions of Apple features.
In the first new trial heard in September 2016 pertaining to the earlier generations of products, Brad helped VirnetX win a $302 million verdict against Apple before a new Eastern District jury. The verdict was entered as a $439.7 million judgment in September 2017 and affirmed on appeal by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
In the second new trial heard in April 2018 addressing the newer generations of products, a different Eastern District jury awarded a unanimous verdict of $502.6 million in favor of VirnetX after finding Apple’s infringement was willful. After that verdict was sent back for a new trial on damages, a final trial was held in the Eastern District in 2020, with jurors awarding a $502.8 million verdict to VirnetX following the Federal Circuit’s affirmance of the 2018 finding that Apple’s VPN On Demand in iOS versions 7.0 and later infringed VirnetX’s patents. The district court later denied Apple’s request for a new trial and entered the jury’s verdict in favor of VirnetX as a final judgment.
Brad Caldwell is a trial lawyer who focuses on patent infringement and complex commercial litigation for both plaintiffs and defendants. His courtroom success before judges, juries, and arbitration panels includes cases involving digital media, telecommunications and computer networking, data security, computer imaging, medical devices, enterprise software, banking technology, and oilfield services.
He has been named “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer magazine two different times based on record-setting patent infringement verdicts against Apple Inc. Those jury awards of $625.6 million and $302 million were ranked as the 6th and 9th largest verdicts in the nation during 2016. The year prior, Caldwell helped Smartflash LLC win a $532.9 million verdict against Apple that was the year’s top Texas verdict and the largest intellectual property verdict in the U.S., ranking third nationwide overall.
Before starting his legal career, Caldwell worked for a year as an electrical engineer at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia, where he obtained a top-secret security clearance and was awarded multiple merit-based citations.
In addition to earning a spot in The Best Lawyers in America since 2016, Mr. Caldwell has been named one of the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America since 2014. He also has earned selection to the annual Texas Super Lawyers list since 2015, including being named in 2019 as one of the Top 100 attorneys in Dallas/Fort Worth, and the affiliated Texas Rising Stars list (2006-2009, 2011-2015) based on his work in patent cases. His role in helping a client win a $250 million patent verdict was featured in a 2009 profile article published by Super Lawyers magazine. In 2012, Mr. Caldwell was named a leading U.S. patent litigator by the publishers of The Legal 500, and he previously was honored by D Magazine in its annual listing of the Best Lawyers in Dallas Under 40.
Mr. Caldwell is licensed to practice before all Texas and New York state courts, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Prior to the formation of Caldwell Cassady & Curry, Mr. Caldwell was a principal at McKool Smith. At the University of Texas School of Law, he received the Dean’s Achievement Award in Patent Litigation. Before attending law school, Mr. Caldwell earned a degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University. He now serves as a member of the electrical engineering department’s External Advisory & Development Council. During an externship from Texas A&M, Mr. Caldwell worked for a year as an electrical engineer at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia, where he obtained a top-secret security clearance and was awarded multiple merit-based citations.
Firm Honors
- Texas Verdicts Hall of Fame (2019) – Texas Lawyer newspaper
- U.S. Firm to Watch (2018) – Managing Intellectual Property magazine
- Texas Intellectual Property Litigation Department of the Year (2017) – Texas Lawyer
- #1 U.S. Plaintiffs’ Patent Firm – IAM Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Professionals
- Top 100 U.S. Verdicts of 2016 (3 verdicts) – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch
- #1 Texas Intellectual Property Verdict (2016) – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch
- Top 50 Recoveries (2015-2016) – The National Law Journal
- Best Law Firms (2017) – The Best Lawyers in America/U.S. News & World Report
- Top Patent Damage Awards Won Since 2000 (2015) – Law360
- Top 100 U.S. Verdicts of 2015 – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch
- #1 Texas Intellectual Property Verdict (2015) – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch