About Phillip Goter

Phil Goter counsels startup companies to Fortune 100 companies around the world, managing litigation through trial and appeal, prosecuting patents and trademarks, conducting pre-suit investigations, advising on regulatory issues, conducting due diligence and freedom to operate analyses, and resolving complex disputes. Phil leverages his M.B.A. and industry experience when working with his clients, and they value his strategic thinking and trust his counsel regarding product development and commercialization, licensing, and contract negotiation. He has advised numerous companies in healthcare, food services, logistics, and advertising spaces. Phil also has extensive experience working with high tech clients in the computer software and hardware space. His keen familiarity with standards-essential cellular infrastructure, 5G, GPS, mobile apps, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, computer and network security, VoIP, wireless networking, home automation, medical devices, and cloud computing provides his clients with a competitive advantage.

Phil has litigated across a diverse technology spectrum, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetic implants and injectables, gallium nitride LEDs, “smart” sporting goods, and casualty insurance. His practice includes patent litigation in U.S. district courts around the country and the Federal Circuit, with the majority in key patent litigation venues such as Delaware and Eastern Texas. He has vast experience providing counsel to international businesses on U.S. intellectual property matters, including representing Chinese networking and telecommunications companies and a major Japanese pharmaceutical company in U.S. patent litigations.

Phil also has significant experience with complex economic matters, and his cases frequently include complicated competition law issues, such as monopolization, attempted monopolization, Walker Process, and sham litigation claims. He has successfully obtained lost profits verdicts in pharmaceutical cases and has commissioned and used numerous expert surveys in litigation to prove infringement, indirect infringement, rates of infringement, apportionment, lost profits, and value of the invention. He also leveraged this experience to help clients successfully defend against antitrust claims, such as anticompetitive conduct by an alleged monopolist or attempted monopolist.

In addition to being a principal at Fish, Phil is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School where he teaches intellectual property and entrepreneurship. He helped launch a drop-in clinic at the law school where he assists with a limited-representation for inventors, authors, entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses. Phil is also a member of the Expert Network for Lunar Startups, an incubator specializing in growth, connection, and innovation for women, people of color, and other high-potential entrepreneurs.

In law school, Phil was a founding member of the Iowa Medical Innovation Group, dedicated to incubation and commercialization of medical device startups. He also assisted noted antitrust scholar, Professor Hovenkamp, and noted copyright scholar, Professor Bohannan, with their research. Before law school, he worked at Rockwell Collins focusing on project management, software architecture, and systems integration of software-defined radio and networking technologies.