Nathan Cummings

Nathan’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation, with a particular emphasis on patent litigation. He has represented plaintiffs and defendants in patent infringement cases involving a wide range of technologies, including cellular communications and data transmission, automated telephone systems and call centers, speech compression and recognition software, Internet and Web applications, digital rights management, semiconductor devices, and consumer products.

Nathan has litigated in courts throughout the country, including the U.S. District Courts for the Western and Eastern Districts of Texas, the Eastern District of Virginia, the District of Delaware, the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of California, and the Southern District of New York. In addition to his trial court experience, Nathan has substantial experience in the appellate courts, including the Federal Circuit and United States Supreme Court. He was also a primary author of an amicus brief in the Supreme Court on behalf of nine emerging technology companies in MGM Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., a landmark case involving secondary liability for copyright infringement in the context of peer-to-peer file-sharing software. The brief was cited by the Court’s unanimous opinion at 545 U.S. 913, 929 (2005).

Nathan Cummings is not admitted in Texas.

Nathan also counsels high-technology clients in all aspects of patent matters, including patent procurement, licensing, infringement, validity, enforceability, and patent portfolio analysis. His technical background generally includes electrical, computer, communications, and software technologies, and more particularly covers computer and microprocessor architectures, telecommunications, local and wide area networking, cellular telephony and data communications, Internet technologies, VLSI design, computer modeling and simulation, and software development and engineering.

Nathan was an associate and then partner in the IP litigation group at Cooley LLP. He was also law clerk for the Honorable Clyde H. Hamilton, Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Prior to law school, Nathan was an engineer at IBM’s Rochester, Minnesota, and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina development labs. He also lived for nearly two years in France and is proficient in French.