Alex Aiken

Alex Aiken represents clients in high-stakes commercial litigation nationwide. He has handled disputes in an array of practice areas, including patent infringement, antitrust, copyright, breach of contract, and bankruptcy.

Alex plays a pivotal role in each of his cases. He has won at trial, argued appeals for his clients, and has briefed, argued, and won a range of motions, including motions to dismiss, motions for summary judgment, motions for class certification, motions to exclude expert opinions, motions to compel critical discovery, and claim construction motions. Alex has also taken and defended dozens of depositions, including of both fact and expert witnesses, and has worked closely with experts on case-critical expert reports.

LANDMARK VICTORIES

Moerhl v. National Association of Realtors et al. (N.D. Ill.) & Gibson v.  National Association of Realtors et al. (W.D. Mo.). Alex and a team from Susman Godfrey litigated a series of groundbreaking class actions on behalf of home sellers against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the largest national real estate services conglomerates. The cases challenged longstanding rules that plaintiffs claimed artificially inflated commissions and harmed homeowners—in particular, the NAR requirement that a home seller must offer compensation to brokers representing buyers to list a home on a multiple listing service. Following years of hard-fought litigation, settlements exceeding $1 billion million were reached. The settlements also include practice changes that have been hailed as, “generating fundamental reforms that will save American consumers billions of dollars each year in real estate transactions.” (Realtors Settlement expected to lower housing prices, The Washington Post, March 15, 2024). The team’s efforts earned them the American Antitrust Institute’s award for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Practice . Over the course of the case, Alex led discovery efforts, defended and took more than a dozen depositions, including of defendants’ executives and experts, and was the lead drafter on numerous case critical motions, including for class certification and against summary judgment.

Atlas Global Technologies LLC v. TP-Link Technologies Co., Ltd. et al. (E.D. Texas). Alex was an integral part of the trial team that won a $37.5 million verdict for client Atlas Global Technologies in a patent infringement lawsuit against Chinese router manufacturer TP-Link, and then successfully defended that verdict on appeal before the Federal Circuit. Following a five-day trial and just a few hours of deliberations, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas found that TP-Link infringed five patents that are essential to the “Wi-Fi 6” wireless standard and awarded Atlas $37,481,264 in damages. The Federal Circuit then affirmed the verdict on appeal shortly after oral argument. Alex was the lead drafter of Atlas’s successful appeal brief, spearheaded the briefing on post-trial motions, convinced the trial court to admit the testimony of Atlas’s damages expert over TP-Link’s objections, argued numerous evidentiary motions and issues related to jury instructions at trial, and took significant depositions that were played to the jury and helped to persuade the jury to find for Atlas.

Bernstein v. Cengage Learning, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.). Alex represented a class of higher education textbook authors in breach-of-contract litigation against their publisher, Cengage. The case alleged that Cengage had been determining how it would pay authors royalties from two electronic offerings—MindTap and Cengage Unlimited—in bad faith. Alex led discovery efforts, including taking and defending almost a dozen depositions and arguing important discovery motions to the court. Alex also worked closely with experts to devise models to fairly compensate authors. Alex was then the principal drafter of the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. Considering the briefing, the extensive discovery record developed by Alex and team, and the opinions of the plaintiffs’ expert, the district court granted the plaintiffs’ class certification motion. Alex then persuaded the Second Circuit to reject Cengage’s request to appeal the district court’s decision. The case settled shortly after for $20.99 million plus interest.

OTHER NOTEWORTHY LITIGATION

• Flynn v. McGraw Hill LLC (S.D.N.Y.) – Represents a putative class of professors and textbook authors in a lawsuit against leading textbook publisher, McGraw Hill. After the district court dismissed plaintiffs’ claims, Alex led the charge on appeal. Alex was the principal drafter of Plaintiffs’ appellate briefs and then argued the case at the Second Circuit . Audio of the oral argument is available here. The Second Circuit later sided with Plaintiffs and reversed the district court. The case remains pending.

• Databricks Class Action (N.D. Cal.) – Serves as counsel to a putative classes of book authors bringing copyright infringement claims against AI companies Databricks and Mosaic ML. Class plaintiffs are best-selling authors who allege their books were illegally pirated and used to develop Databrick’s and Mosaic’s Large Language Models.

• Molecular Rebar Designs, LLC et al. v. LG Energy Solution, Ltd. & Samsung Electronics Co., LTD et al. (E.D. Texas) – Represents Molecular Rebar Design, LLC and Black Diamond Structures, LLC in patent infringement litigation against industry leaders LG and Samsung. The case concerns carbon nanotube technology that improves battery life and charging speeds, and is critical in modern electronics.

• Bella v. Wilton Reassurance Life Company of New York (S.D.N.Y.) – Represents a putative class of life insurance policyholders against insurer Wilton Re. Plaintiffs allege that Wilton breached contractual provisions requiring Wilton to determine monthly cost of insurance rates “based on expectations as to future mortality experience.”

• ParTec AG et al. v. Microsoft Corporation (E.D. Texas) – Secured a confidential settlement after the close of discovery for German company ParTec AG in patent infringement litigation against Microsoft. ParTec alleged that the Microsoft infrastructure powering Microsoft’s AI services infringed ParTec patents relating to the dynamic assignment of computing resources and tasks.

• Atlas Global Technologies LLC v. ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (W.D. Texas) – Represented repeat client Atlas Global Technologies in a patent infringement lawsuit against ASUSTeK—one of the leading providers of consumer notebooks and motherboards in the U.S. The case was litigated all the way to trial and settled after jury selection for a confidential sum.

• Additional Atlas Global Representations (E.D. Texas & W.D. Texas) – In addition to its cases against TP-Link and ASUSTeK, represented Atlas Global Technologies in patent litigation in the Western and Eastern Districts of Texas against industry leaders Acer, Dell, HP, Sercomm, Vantiva, OnePlus, D-Link, and Zyxel—alleging infringement of Atlas’s Wi-Fi 6 standards essential patents. Each case settled for a confidential sum.

• Barkan Wireless IP Holdings, L.P. v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.; Barkan Wireless IP Holdings, L.P. v. Sprint Communications Co. L.P. et al. (E.D. Texas) – Previously represented repeat client Barkan Wireless in two separate patent infringement lawsuits in the Eastern District of Texas against industry leaders T-Mobile, Nokia, Sprint, and CommScope. The cases alleged that the defendants infringed three patents held by Barkan Wireless related to femtocell technology. The cases settled on the eve of trial for confidential sums.

• In re: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) – While working at another firm, represented Credit Suisse in the Lehman bankruptcy in a case related to the early termination of derivative trades. In 2018, Credit Suisse obtained a settlement providing it with allowed claims of $385 million for derivative claims and $363 million for guarantee claims.

BACKGROUND

Alex joined Susman Godfrey after clerking for the Honorable Ronald M. Gould on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and starting his career at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York. 

Alex earned his J.D. Order of the Coif and magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was the Online Managing Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and a member of the national moot court team. Alex was awarded the David Werner Amram Prize, the P. Pemberton Morris Prize, and a Distinguished Pro Bono Service Award upon graduation from Penn. Alex earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Oregon, where he graduated summa cum laude.

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