Chris Limbacher took a unique path to become a tech-focused patent litigator. Before joining the Heim, Payne & Chorush litigation team, Chris spent most of the past decade working as a software engineer in the healthcare and oil & gas industries. After multiple years developing commercial products – including enterprise software suites, real-time control systems, and automated wireless tracking systems – he decided it was time to take on new challenges as a practicing attorney.

Now, Chris focuses on patent litigation for a variety of companies in cases involving the same computer technologies and electrical engineering issues that he mastered in his software engineering career. He regularly represents clients in IPR (inter partes review) proceedings and ex parte patent reexaminations.

In both technology and law, Chris’ approach to solving problems has stayed the same. He learned first-hand the value of immersion to provide the degree of expertise necessary to excel. His hands-on engineering experience in the oil & gas industry resulted in multiple invention disclosures and a pending patent for automating drill pipe tally during drilling.

Similarly, his in-depth study of the healthcare industry led him to write and publish an article on the effects of state and national legislation on healthcare pricing. Chris brings that same deep-dive approach to patent litigation. “It’s important to immerse yourself, both in how the technology works and how the industry works, in order to provide the best solution to a client’s issue,” he says.

As a student at the University of Houston Law Center, Chris served as Note and Comment Editor for the Houston Law Review, and he was honored for authoring the year’s best student article. His numerous academic awards include the Dean’s Scholarship, the Stephen S. Rudolph Scholarship for Outstanding Academic Achievement, and multiple LEX Awards for top law school section scores in Contracts, Civil Procedure, and Constitutional Law.