Find Lawyers in California, United States for Litigation - Intellectual Property
Practice Area Overview
IP is protected by specific laws relating to patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets; these laws acknowledge an innovator’s ownership of his or her novel creation and give that innovator the exclusive right, for a defined period of time, to use and benefit from it.
Litigation of IP matters takes several forms. One involves patents, which cover inventions on designs and products, as well as the processes through which they are manufactured or used. Patent infringement refers to the unauthorized use of a patented invention, at which point litigation can arise. A “Hatch-Waxman” litigation is a particular kind of patent dispute involving generic versus brand pharmaceutical products and processes and infringement of the patent(s) covering these.
Trademarks and copyrights also can be infringed. A trademark can be a symbol, logo, word, sound, color, or name that identifies the source of a product and distinguishes it from that of others. Copyrights protect works of authorship, such as writings, music, and art. Copyrights and trademarks grant holders exclusive rights to use their works, and an unauthorized use can lead to litigation. Trade secrets are information that companies keep secret to give them an advantage over competitors. Misappropriation of trade secrets is a typical litigation scenario when such information is taken without authority.
Licensing disputes can arise that relate to any of these protections. A licensing agreement is essentially a contract between an IP rights owner and an entity authorized to use such rights, usually in exchange for an agreed upon fee or royalty. The extent to which parties do or do not follow the terms of that contract often engenders this type of litigation.
Other kinds of IP litigation can include variations of the above, including trademark dilution, “cybersquatting,” pirated and “knock-off” commercial goods, domain name disputes, domestic and foreign customs seizures, and unfair competition.
IP assets are a valuable foundation of any successful venture, so when unauthorized use occurs, disputes are bound to arise.
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Ron uses his unique experience to provide the best business solutions to BG Law clients. Over the past two decades, he has counseled small and start-up companies on intellectual property matters, including trademark protection, and he has litigated numerous trademark and trade secret cases. Ron also represents trustees in major bankruptcy cases. For 15 years, Ron was the CFO of his own corporation. He has served as a volunteer arbitrator for the California State Bar Mandatory Fee Arbitration ...
Eric Acker is a partner and trial lawyer in the firm’s Intellectual Property Group. Mr. Acker has tried more than 50 trials (including more than 47 jury trials) in courtrooms across the country. Mr. Acker’s recent trials have involved a variety of technologies and significant legal issues. In the high-profile SCO v. Novell case, following a three-week trial, the jury affirmed our client Novell’s ownership of the copyrights to the UNIX software code and rejected SCO’s c...
Jennifer S. Baldocchi is Co-Vice Chair of the Paul Hastings Employment Department and the Chair of the International Employee Mobility and Trade Secrets practice. Her practice focuses on employee mobility and intellectual property, including trade secrets, covenants not to compete, unfair competition, and fiduciary duties. She is ranked by Chambers USA, recognized by The Legal 500 US for trade secrets litigation and non-contentious matters, and recognized as both a Top Labor and Employment La...
Ian Ballon is an intellectual property and Internet litigator who represents clients in copyright, DMCA, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity, privacy, security, software, database and Internet disputes and in the defense of data privacy, behavioral advertising and other Internet-related class action suits. Mr. Ballon, who splits his time between the firm's Silicon Valley and LA offices, is the author of the four-volume legal treatise, E-Commerce and Internet Law: Treatise With Forms 2...
Bennett Bigman is a partner at Russ August & Kabat. He is a member of the Media & Entertainment and Litigation & Trial groups. His practice focuses on all aspects of the entertainment industry, representing clients in the film, television and music industries in matters involving accounting and profit participation claims, copyright and trademark disputes, right of publicity, idea submissions, breach of contract, defamation, employment and insurance. He is particularly experienced...
Mark is a Partner at the firm, and he is Chair of the Consumer Products practice group. Mark specializes in representing consumer product companies in corporate, commercial, intellectual property, finance, transactional, merger and acquisition, insolvency, e-commerce, and sourcing matters. For over 30 years, Mark has been steeped in the apparel and textile space, building relationships with the leading players, and leveraging his experience to guide apparel, textile, and other consumer produc...
Neel Chatterjee is a partner in Goodwin’s Intellectual Property practice and serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. An internationally recognized technology litigator and trial lawyer, Mr. Chatterjee has a proven track record of wins in hard-to-win technology cases. Mr. Chatterjee has a passion for representing entrepreneurs and disruptive technology companies, even at their earliest stages. His cases often break new ground in undefined areas of the law. Clients frequently turn...
Vincent H. Chieffo is an entertainment and media litigator with significant trial and appellate experience. His practice also includes entertainment transactional work. His litigation experience encompasses disputes throughout the entertainment business, including those involving copyright and trademark infringement, right of publicity, defamation, the rights of estates and heirs in copyrights and other entertainment assets, idea submission, royalties and participations, and distribution and ...
Luke is a trial lawyer who focuses his practice on intellectual property and complex commercial cases. He has first-chaired many civil jury trials, obtaining some of the highest jury awards in venues throughout the country. His practice extends to appeals; he has appeared and argued before state and federal courts of appeals, including the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Luke also appears and argues before the United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and ...
With more than 40 years in the legal industry, Greg David Derin, Esq. joined Signature Resolution as a mediator and arbitrator in 2020. For nearly 20 years, Mr. Derin has successfully assisted parties in resolving more than a thousand complex matters. He is often called upon to resolve disputes after previous attempts have failed. Parties consistently attribute their successful resolutions to Mr. Derin's persistence, attentive and open facilitation of a process designed to encourage creative ...
Sanj Dutta is a partner in Goodwin’s Technology group and a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property Transactions and Strategies practice. He advises companies on patent prosecution across a variety of technology areas, including computer vision, image and video signal processing, machine learning, packaging, big data analytics, robotics, virtualization, semiconductors, networking, and software security. He has handled numerous IP matters in state and federal courts and before t...
Mark Finkelstein is a partner at Umberg Zipser LLP with more than 23 years of intellectual property and complex litigation experience. He advises clients on matters involving patent, copyright, trademark, and trade dress infringement, as well as misuse of trade secrets, unfair competition, and other commercial disputes. Mark has significant first-chair trial experience in both state and federal courts, and has argued before the Federal and Ninth Circuits .Mark has been recognized for intellec...
Kenneth M. Fitzgerald is a highly experienced trial lawyer, practicing business litigation with an emphasis on complex commercial cases and intellectual property disputes. Before joining the firm, Mr. Fitzgerald was a partner at Latham & Watkins, where he successfully tried numerous cases to verdict in state and federal courts throughout the country. Mr. Fitzgerald has handled a wide variety of commercial litigation matters involving contracts, business torts, trademarks, trade dress, cop...
William (Bill) Gaede focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation in the life sciences and medical device industries. Bill serves as lead counsel for a wide range of companies and research institutes and has extensive experience in litigating life science technologies such as antibodies, proteins, small molecules and diagnostics. In addition to his jury trial experience, Bill has argued before the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He further provides risk manage...
John M. Gatti is a partner in the firm's entertainment litigation practice and resident in the Los Angeles office. His practice includes 31 years of litigation and trial experience in state, federal and bankruptcy courts as well as representing individuals and corporations in complex business and commercial lawsuits. John has trial experience across a variety of industries, with a specific emphasis in the entertainment, media and sports industries. John’s experience in the entertainment...
Paul Goldstein, the Lillick Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, has been Of Counsel to Morrison & Foerster since 1988 and works with lawyers in the firm's offices around the world, advising on copyright and related intellectual property matters that arise in the context of litigation, licensing, and counselling. As a member of firm teams in each of these settings, he draws on more than 42 years' experience teaching and practicing copyright law to help clients design practical solutio...
Arturo González is chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Commercial Litigation and Trial Practice Group and a former co-chair of our Litigation Department. He is a trial lawyer who specializes in high-stakes, bet-the-company litigation. Mr. González has successfully defended three trials where the plaintiffs sought more than $1 billion in damages, including a trade secrets case on behalf of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. That lawsuit was filed by Silvaco Data Systems, and...
David Grace is a leader in the field of brand protection, intellectual property, entertainment and advertising, providing both transactional and dispute resolution services. For more than 30 years, Dave has helped clients develop, cultivate and protect their brands and intellectual property rights from creation to globalization. He assists a wide spectrum of clients, from startups to iconic brands and Fortune 500 companies, including entertainment and media companies, major financial institut...
Deborah Greaves provides advisory and legal services for clients in the fashion and consumer goods industries. Her key practice areas include intellectual property, brand enforcement, corporate creation and governance (public/private, domestic/international), regulatory and social compliance, government affairs, business transactions (licenses, leases, manufacturing agreements, distribution agreements, consulting agreements, etc.), employment, retail and wholesale operations, supply chain int...
Over more than 35 years of practice, David Halberstadter, the firm's deputy general counsel, has established a reputation among leading entertainment companies as a no-nonsense advisor and talented litigator. When other options fail, he aggressively pursues and defends lawsuits, with a focus on intellectual property-related disputes. Across all his work, clients value David's clear thinking, strategic wisdom and practical business sense. David represents motion picture studios, production com...
Julia R. Haye’s entertainment practice includes successful resolution, at trial and in arbitration, of complex business disputes involving profit participation, motion picture production and distribution, rights ownership, copyright and trademark infringement, idea submission, and other entertainment-related conflicts and contractual disputes. Her counsel and interests encompass every genre of entertainment and media, including studio and independent motion pictures, television, music, ...
Mr. Iser specializes in the areas of intellectual property, entertainment, commercial, real estate and employment litigation, including the defense of nationwide class action lawsuits. He handles complex, high-profile matters around the country for clients including Mattel, SeaWorld, eBay, Univision, Roland Corporation, and iconic musical artists including Jackson Browne and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Mr. Iser is the Managing Partner of KWIKA. In the area of intellectual property, Mr. Iser co...
Matthias Kamber is a partner in the Intellectual Property practice of Paul Hastings and is based in the firm's San Francisco office. Mr. Kamber focuses on litigating intellectual property cases and has tried approximately ten jury and bench trials. In particular, Mr. Kamber has handled patent cases involving internet advertising and telephones, smartphones, and microprocessors throughout the country and before the U.S. International Trade Commission. Mr. Kamber has also handled trade secret, ...
Michael I. Katz is highly regarded for his combination of creativity, strategic judgment, and courtroom prowess. He has more than twenty years' experience litigating complex business disputes, including intellectual property, unfair competition, and consumer class actions. Mr. Katz was formerly a partner at Morrison & Foerster. He began his career at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Barbara B. Crabb, United States District Court for the Western Dis...
PRACTICE AREAS Trials Commercial Litigation Intellectual Property Securities Insurance Recovery/Bad Faith White Collar Criminal Defense Legal Malpractice Entertainment/Sports EXPERIENCE Jennifer Keller is one of America’s most successful trial attorneys. She represents both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad range of high-stakes commercial litigation and white collar cases. Chambers USA and Chambers Global rank her among the top commercial litigators in the nation, quoting sources who...
Rudy Kim is a partner in the Intellectual Property practice of Paul Hastings and is the Chair of the Litigation Department in Palo Alto. Mr. Kim has over 20 years of experience representing clients in high-stakes IP and technology-related litigation involving patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and complex commercial claims in federal district and appellate courts, in private arbitration, and before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. Patent and Trademar...
Mr. Kinsella is a nationally known trial lawyer specializing in the areas of entertainment and intellectual property litigation. During his career, he has successfully tried numerous cases in state and federal courts, and in private arbitrations and administrative proceedings, involving a wide array of disputes, from copyright and trademark infringement matters to antitrust and securities litigation. Mr. Kinsella has represented large domestic and international corporations, major motion pict...
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