Brooks Beard is a partner in the firm’s Intellectual Property Group. Mr. Beard has a trial and appellate litigation practice focusing on complex IP litigation. Mr. Beard also provides counseling and litigation advice on issues surrounding false or deceptive advertising allegations relating to environmental or “green” marketing claims and is a Steering Committee member for Morrison & Foerster's Clean Technology + Alternative Energy Practice Group.
Regarding his IP litigation practice, Mr. Beard has overseen dozens of complex technology matters for clients in the federal trial and appellate courts. He has been involved in everything from high-stakes patent litigation matters to patent litigation against non-practicing entities. The technologies at issue in these matters have included such things as online technical design tools, telecommunications equipment, Internet search and advertising, website functionality, graphical user interfaces, smartphones, optical character recognition software, camouflage stealth systems, power over Ethernet, candle designs (relating to design patents), and consumer product packaging. Mr. Beard’s clients have included companies such as Clorox, Huawei Technologies, OpenTV, National Semiconductor, Nuance Communications, Restoration Hardware, Texas Instruments, Viztek, VMware, and Xelerated.
Mr. Beard serves on the Council of Legal Advisors and the Eco-Entrepreneurship Advisory Council at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara. In October 2007, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Mr. Beard to serve as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board. He was sworn in as a Commissioner in January 2008 and in January 2012, Mayor Edwin Lee reappointed him to this position.
Mr. Beard received his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, his J.D., cum laude, from Vermont Law School, and his LL.M., with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center.