Phillip M. Aurentz

Phillip Aurentz is an associate in the Dallas office of McKool Smith.  Prior to law school Mr. Aurentz worked at Exxon Mobil Corporation as a production gas plants project engineer.

While in law school, Mr. Aurentz was an associate editor of the Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal.  He also earned the Dean’s Achievement Award in Patent Law and the Dean’s Achievement Award in Creditor’s Rights and Consumer Bankruptcy

Representative Matters

• IN RE: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon.  Part of team that represents Halliburton in the litigation in the Eastern District of Louisiana related to the Deepwater Horizon blowout.
• MCR Oil Tools LLC v. Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. Represented Halliburton in a state court suit alleging breach of contract and breach of confidentiality agreement.
• Weatherford International v. Halliburton.  Represents Halliburton in a suit in which Weatherford alleges infringement of  patents covering method of  forming composite parts for use in downhole tools, such as frac plugs, bridge plugs, and packers.
• Aloft Media, LLC v. Oracle Corporation, et al. Represented Halliburton in a patent infringement suit filed by Aloft alleging infringement of two patents related to decision making computer software.
• Halliburton v. BJ Services Company.  Represents Halliburton in an arbitration proceeding before the American Arbitration Association  a case alleging infringement of patents covering hydrajet fracturing of oil and gas wells.
• Nuance Communications, Inc. v. Tellme Networks, Inc. Part of the team that represents Nuance in a suit filed in the District of Delaware against Tellme for patent infringement involving a method and apparatus related to “whisper” technology in directory assistance applications.
• Leon Stambler v. Amazon, et al. Part of the team defending American Airlines against patent infringement claims filed by Mr. Stambler based on two patents related to internet security.
• JPMorgan Chase v. Affiliated Computer Services. Represented Affiliated Computer Services in an action filed by J.P.Morgan Chase, in federal district court in Delaware, alleging infringement of patents regarding the technology involved in outsourced state-governed child support payments. The case settled favorably for the firm's clients shortly before the pretrial conference.
• ReedHycalog v. US Synthetic and Halliburton. Part of the team that defended US Synthetic and Halliburton against patent infringement claims filed by ReedHycalog based on four patents related to leached diamond drill-bit cutting elements. The case settled favorably for the firm's clients shortly after the pretrial conference.
• ReedHycalog v. Varel. Part of the team defending Varel against patent infringement claims filed by ReedHycalog based on patents related to diamond drill-bit cutting elements. The case settled favorably for the firm's clients.
• WOW Wings v. Pilgram's Pride. Represented Pilgram's Pride in this suit for breach of contract, trademark infringement, unfair competition, and tortious interference.
• i4i Limited Partnership v. Microsoft Corporation. Part of the team that represented i4i Limited Partnership in a suit filed against Microsoft Corporation for patent infringement involving a method and system for manipulating architecture and content of a document separately from each other.

Awards & Recognition

• Named to the list of Texas Super Lawyers Rising Stars

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