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Attorney Advertising. The information on this profile does not constitute legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed by reading it. Past results described do not guarantee similar outcomes.
At a Glance
| Attorney | Chad C. Walters |
| Firm | Baker Botts L.L.P. |
| Office | 2001 Ross Avenue, Suite 900, Dallas, TX 75201 |
| Role | Co-Chair, PTAB Trials Practice |
| Focus | Patent post-grant trials, patent litigation, patent portfolio development and management |
| Education | J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1999; B.S. Civil & Environmental Engineering, Duke University, 1996 (cum laude) |
| Recognition | Chambers USA, Intellectual Property Excellence, 2025 |
Origin & Founder History
Chad Walters earned his B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University in 1996, graduating cum laude, before earning his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1999, where he served on the editorial board of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He was admitted to the Texas Bar in 2002 and has built his career at Baker Botts’s Dallas office, a firm with roots tracing to 1840 and deep historical ties to the Texas energy and technology sectors.
Practice Concentration
Walters co-chairs Baker Botts’s PTAB Trials Practice and has led more than 200 post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, representing both petitioners and patent owners. His practice spans patent litigation, portfolio development, and technology licensing across telecommunications, semiconductors, software, optical networks, oil and gas production, medical equipment, business methods, wireless components, and mechanical arts.
Track Record
Walters has led inter partes review (IPR) campaigns on behalf of petitioners invalidating hundreds of patent claims, including claims that formed the basis of multi-million-dollar jury verdicts, and has successfully defended patent validity before the PTAB on behalf of patent owners. Reported matters include developing and managing a worldwide patent portfolio for a multinational railcar equipment manufacturer covering railcar, mining, and highway equipment technology, and representing clients in disputes involving Ericsson, WeatherTech, and other companies before the PTAB and in district court. Awesome Attorneys did not independently verify every case-level outcome beyond these publicly reported matters.
Client Voice
Awesome Attorneys did not locate a substantial base of independent consumer reviews for Walters’s practice, consistent with a large-firm patent litigation practice serving corporate and institutional clients rather than individual consumers.
Beyond the Courtroom
Walters’s role co-chairing Baker Botts’s firmwide PTAB Trials Practice reflects sustained institutional leadership within one of Texas’s oldest and largest law firms, a role distinct from individual case work and one that shapes the firm’s approach to post-grant strategy across its client base.
Recognition
Baker Botts was recognized in Chambers USA 2025 for Intellectual Property Excellence, a firm-level distinction reflecting sustained IP practice quality. Awesome Attorneys did not locate a Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification for Walters, and no “specialist” language is used in this profile as a result; his USPTO registration (Reg. No. 48,022) is accurately described as such.
Texas Legal Backdrop
PTAB post-grant proceedings, a substantial part of Walters’s practice, operate under strict, largely non-extendable federal deadlines — an IPR petition, for example, generally must be filed within one year of being served with a patent infringement complaint. These proceedings run entirely under federal USPTO procedure regardless of the parties’ state of residence, though the Northern District of Texas’s growing patent litigation docket often runs parallel to PTAB proceedings on the same patents. None of this is legal advice; a party served with a patent infringement complaint should consult counsel promptly given the strict, non-waivable one-year IPR filing deadline.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
Walters’s genuine differentiator is sheer PTAB volume and dual-sided experience — more than 200 post-grant proceedings representing both petitioners and patent owners gives him a rare vantage point on strategy from both sides of the docket, a depth of specialized experience difficult to replicate outside a handful of dedicated PTAB practitioners nationally. The honest trade-off is that Baker Botts is a large, historic international firm; clients seeking the highest-touch boutique relationship or a fee structure calibrated to a small individual matter may be better served by a smaller Dallas IP boutique, though Walters’s specific PTAB depth is a genuine differentiator worth weighing against that trade-off.
Methodology & Sourcing
This profile was compiled from Baker Botts’s public attorney biography for Chad C. Walters, the State Bar of Texas licensing record, Legal 500’s published attorney profile, and Baker Botts’s news releases regarding Chambers USA 2025 recognition and reported PTAB and litigation matters.
Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice
This profile is an independent editorial article published by Awesome Attorneys. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any lawyer or law firm profiled on this site, and inclusion in this series is not paid placement. Facts in this profile were researched from public sources as described in the Methodology & Sourcing section and are current only as of the research date.