Farella's intellectual property lawyers help owners, developers, and users of intellectual property secure, protect, and defend their rights. With decades of success in the courtroom and boardroom, we rely on our technical knowledge, strategic creativity, and trial skills in trade secret, patent, copyright, trademark, and other technology-related disputes to assist our clients in identifying the most efficient resolution.

Start-ups and the Fortune 100 Seek Farella

We seek quick results for our clients—which include Fortune 100 corporations, small-to-mid cap companies, emerging and privately held companies, and entrepreneurs—as early in a case as possible to save their businesses from years of time-consuming and expensive litigation. But when a trial becomes necessary, our clients are in safe hands because we have tried a number of high-stakes cases before judges and juries, making us a go-to law firm for our client’s most significant disputes.

Farella's clients range from large companies with substantial in-house legal teams to smaller companies with either very limited or no in-house resources. We frequently litigate against large teams of lawyers from international law firms. Our client teams are smartly-staffed and nimble—led by one or more Farella partners who remain actively engaged in every facet of the case. Communication is central to our client service model, where we adapt to the style and process each client prefers.

Trial Lawyers and Engineers

Our practice—which earns national and California-based rankings from U.S. News - Best Lawyers—is comprised of skilled trial lawyers who represent companies in courtrooms throughout the United States across diverse industries, including computer hardware and software, semiconductor, life sciences, medical devices, healthcare, internet and gig economy, solar, wine, and other high technology industries. Many of our lawyers have engineering or technical degrees and have worked in the industries that we serve, which enables us to effectively convey complex technical concepts to judges, juries, arbitrators, mediators, and other parties.

Areas of intellectual property litigation and related cases we handle include:

  • Trade secret, breach of NDA, and employee mobility
  • Patent, including lawsuits and Patent Office litigation such as Inter Partes Review (IPR) and Covered Business Method (CBM) proceedings
  • Copyright
  • Trademark and trade dress
  • Antitrust
  • Technology licensing disputes
  • Right of publicity
  • Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Professional Leadership

Our recognition in the greater legal community includes several lawyers who are Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a preeminent organization in North America dedicated to maintaining and improving the standards of trial practice, professionalism, ethics, and the administration of justice. Noting several recent client successes in the area of intellectual property litigation, the widely-read legal news source Law360 recognized our firm as a “California Powerhouse” in 2018. Our lawyers also regularly appear in the Super Lawyers and Rising Stars annual lists of the top lawyers in Northern California.

Our professional involvement also extends to leadership positions with the Intellectual Property Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco, the San Francisco Bay Area Intellectual Property American Inn of Court, the Federal Circuit Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and other leading legal and industry organizations in California and nationally. We are also active participants in and thought-leadership contributors to The Sedona Conference. 

Firm Highlights

News

Scraping Battles: Meta Loses Legal Effort to Halt Harvesting of Personal Profiles

Alex Reese spoke to Matt Fleischer-Black of  Cybersecurity Law Report about the Meta v. Bright Data decision and its impact on U.S. scraping case law. Read the article here (paywall or trial).

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Publication

Is the Copyright Threat to Generative AI Overhyped? Implications of Kadrey v. Meta

In November 2023, Meta successfully had nearly all of the claims against it dismissed in the Kadrey v. Meta Platforms, Inc. suit, a victory with potential implications for other technology companies with generative AI tools...

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Publication

Will the Supreme Court Limit Copyright Damages? Implications of Warner Chappell Music, Inc. et al. v. Sherman Nealy et al.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Warner Chappell Music, Inc. et al. v. Sherman Nealy et al. (Case No. 22-1078) on February 21, 2024. On the surface, the case presents the opportunity...

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Publication

Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence: AI Copyright Law and Fair Use on Trial

On Sept. 25, 2023, Judge Stephanos Bibas (sitting by designation in the District of Delaware), determined that fact questions surrounding issues of fair use and tortious interference required a jury to decide media conglomerate...

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News

Farella Braun + Martel Earns 2024 Best Law Firms® Rankings

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Publication

Hsu Untied Interview With Dan Callaway

Dan Callaway, a partner specializing in intellectual property litigation, was a guest on Hsu Untied , an award-winning podcast hosted and produced by Richard Hsu featuring entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, best-selling authors, and more.  During...

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Publication

Fair Use Question Goes to Trial in AI Copyright Lawsuit – Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence

On September 25, 2023, a United States Circuit Judge determined that fact questions surrounding issues of fair use and tortious interference required a jury to decide media conglomerate Thomson Reuters’s lawsuit against Ross Intelligence...

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News

Winston Liaw Named a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow

Northern California legal powerhouse Farella Braun + Martel is proud to announce that Winston Liaw has been named a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow for 2024. Winston joins a select group of...

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Publication

AI and Trade Secrets: A Complicated Friendship

Excitement has been growing for decades around the development, training, and use of generative AI, but this past year the excitement escalated into a frenzy. Everyone is considering how AI impacts their business. This article...

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Publication

It Wasn’t Me, It Was the AI: Intellectual Property and Data Privacy Concerns With Nonprofits’ Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems

In today's rapidly changing technological landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is making headlines and being discussed constantly. To be sure, AI provides a powerful tool to nonprofits in creating content and exploiting for countless cost-effective...

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