Caroline E. Burks

Caroline focuses her practice on intellectual property litigation, representing patent holders and businesses in federal courts nationwide and the International Trade Commission (ITC). 

She represents clients, ranging from solo inventors to multinational corporations, on matters involving software, hardware, standard essential patents and biomedical devices. Caroline brings extensive experience in case strategy, motion drafting, legal research and discovery analysis along with oral advocacy ranging from fact and expert depositions to oral arguments before federal courts. She handles patent litigation and privacy law matters involving emerging technologies.

In addition to her litigation work, Caroline advises clients on cybersecurity, data privacy and technology-related legal issues, drawing on her academic and professional background in cybersecurity and national security law. She is also deeply committed to pro bono service, representing clients in special education disputes with local and area education agencies throughout Iowa.

In her personal time, Caroline is a proud Air Force spouse and mother to two boys.

• Represented inventor of cardiac implant in patent litigation against multinational corporation.
• Secured favorable settlement for patent holder in litigation involving voice-to-text and call routing patents.
• Secured favorable settlement for patent holder in litigation involving biometric and device security patents.
• Successfully disputed allegations of mixed-hybrid claims after claim construction arguments on behalf of patent holder.
• Participated on plaintiff’s litigation team for State of Texas v. Meta biometric data privacy enforcement resulting in favorable settlement.
• Secured back-to-back favorable settlements for plaintiff in patent litigation suits involving financial research platform.
• Participated on International Trade Commission teams representing multinational petitioner in enforcement of patent rights for video codec and cellular patents.
• Assisted in securing litigation funding for non-practicing entity to enforce software patent rights against multinational corporation.

Education

• University of Texas School of Law, J.D., 2021
• Wayne State University, B.S., 2017, cum laude

Admissions

• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, 2025
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, 2025
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, 2024
• Iowa, 2023
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, 2022
• U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, 2022
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, 2022
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, 2021
• Texas, 2021
  
  
  
  

Clerkships

• Judicial Intern, Honorable Alan Albright, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, 2020

Professional Activities

• Iowa State Bar Association – Federal Practice Committee
• Blackstone Inn of Court
• Military Spouse J.D. Network
• Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal, Managing Editor (Vol. 29); Articles Editor (Vol. 28)
• The Review of Litigation, Director of Development (Vol. 40); Staff Editor (Vol. 39)