Christian J. Hurt

Christian is at home in the courtroom. He began his career serving as a law clerk to three federal judges, one in the Eastern District of Texas and two at the CAFC. As a volunteer prosecutor for the City of Houston between clerkships, and as part of his pro bono practice, Christian tried 15 misdemeanor cases to a jury verdict.

Since completing his clerkships in 2013, Christian has argued over 75 court hearings, including over 20 claim-construction hearings and 11 CAFC appeals. At trial, he focuses on the direct and cross examinations of key witnesses and has walked the jury through the technical evidence, including source code, during closing arguments. He has played key roles in ITC proceedings as part of a global patent dispute, conducting expert cross-examinations that contributed to the withdrawal of asserted claims and eventual settlement. In addition, he has examined fact and expert witnesses in a federal antitrust jury trial that settled before verdict and represented a patent owner in a jury trial involving multiple standard-essential patents, where the jury found willful infringement on all patents for which he was responsible at trial. 

Christian's most recent experience includes being part of the trial team that in August 2026 secured a complete defense verdict in a high-stakes patent case in the Eastern District of Texas, involving hundreds of millions of dollars in claimed damages, with findings of noninfringement, invalidity, and violations of Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing obligations.

Christian has served as a court-appointed technical advisor in the Eastern District of Texas for the claim-construction proceedings in two oil-and-gas cases. He has also worked on adversarial proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). His experience extends to trademark, trade secret, antitrust and competition, breach of contract, legal malpractice, and personal injury cases.

In all his cases, Christian leverages his engineering background to obtain a deep understanding of the disputed issues. He has worked on cases involving all types of technologies, including hardware and software, computer networking, mobile devices, wireless communications, semiconductor manufacturing, oil-and-gas technologies, medical devices, as well as biotechnology and pharmaceutical drugs.  

Christian takes pride in being involved in the legal community. Since 2019, he has taught patent litigation as an adjunct professor at The University of Texas School of Law, and has served as a guest coach for Patent Advocacy and Practice Court at Baylor Law School. Christian is a Bencher in The Honorable Barbara M.G. Lynn Inn of Court; has been a member of the Eastern District of Texas Bench & Bar Conference Planning Committee; served as a member of Judge Alan Albright’s attorney working group; and served as vice chair of the Regional Programs Committee for the Federal Circuit Bar Association (FCBA).