Rinehart, Andrew W.

Andrew W. Rinehart

Counsel

1001 West Fourth Street, Winston-Salem, NC USA 27101

Overview
Experience
Insights

Overview

Andy Rinehart specializes in patent litigation in U.S. District Courts and trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. He has appeared as counsel in over 50 trials before the PTAB and 40 patent cases in district courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Andy is a member of Kilpatrick’s Patent Litigation and PTAB Litigation Teams. In addition, Andy is individually ranked by Patexia with an Overall Performance Rank in the top 10% of the most active PTAB attorneys in 2024 (Patexia PTAB Intelligence Report 2024).

Andy is an experienced trial advocate and has appeared in numerous discovery, claim construction, and pre-trial hearings. He has also appeared on behalf of petitioners and patent owners in multiple PTAB oral arguments (live and virtual).

Andy was recognized in 2025 as one of the “Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch” for Patent Litigation by The Best Lawyers in America®. Managing IP's PTAB 2020 rankings named him as one of the “Top 50 Petitioner and Patent Owner Attorneys at the PTAB in Proceedings Filed in 2020.”

Prior to joining Kilpatrick, Andy was a Captain in the United States Army and the North Carolina National Guard, where he served in several command and staff assignments. He deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom for 15 months with the 1st Infantry Division, during which time he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal and a Combat Action Badge.

Experience

Represented GREE, Inc., a Japanese gaming and internet media company in a large-scale patent battle with Supercell, a Finnish mobile game development company. Kilpatrick launched suits involving more than 20 patents against Supercell. The case has led to a complex series of litigations in district court resulting in more than $100 million in jury verdicts in favor of GREE, as well as at the PTAB and before the Federal Circuit. Obtained a jury verdict for GREE in the Eastern District of Texas of willful infringement, asserting five patents and an award of at least $8.5 million for damages against Supercell in September 2020, and a second jury verdict of willful infringement in favor of GREE and an award of $92 million in damages in May 2021. GREE, Inc. v. Supercell Oy.

Represented Dr. Mark Barry, an orthopedic surgeon and the inventor of medical devices designed to help spine corrections, and defended the validity of Dr. Barry’s patents in two inter partes review challenges that resulted in an exceedingly rare final determination upholding the patentability of all challenged claims. Kilpatrick obtained a verdict of willful infringement and an award of $20.3 million for past damages after a seven-day jury trial asserting Dr. Barry’s patents. The court increased the award to $23.6 million after ruling on post-trial motions. The Federal Circuit affirmed the decision in January 2019.

Successfully defended major aerospace company in action for preliminary injunction in the Eastern District of Texas, including a finding by the Court that our client “raised a substantial question that the asserted patent claims are invalid as obvious.” The case was transferred to the Central District of California and resolved favorably after successful inter partes and ex parte challenges to the asserted patents. B/E Aerospace, Inc. v. C&D Zodiac Inc. et al., 2:16-cv-01417 (E.D. Tex. 2016); 2:19-cv-01480 (C.D. Cal. 2019); IPR2017-01275, -01276, PGR2017-00019, IPR2022-00749 (PTAB 2022).

Prevailed on behalf of Petitioner Google Inc. in two inter partes reviews challenging the validity of patents related to processing and transmitting digital content. The PTAB found all challenged claims in both proceedings unpatentable. Google Inc. v. Summit 6 LLC, IPR2015-00806, -807 (PTAB 2015).

Insights