Cecilia Ziniti represents, counsels and advises public, private, and venture-backed high-tech companies in the software, hardware, internet and mobile device industries. Ms. Ziniti maintains a broad intellectual property law practice and has litigated high-stakes patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret cases.
Ms. Ziniti has represented technology companies, including Yahoo! and Autodesk, in state and federal court, and has been involved in all aspects of litigation, from discovery and motion practice to expert analysis to mediation and settlement. Last year, Ms. Ziniti completed a secondment in the intellectual property and licensing group of a consumer electronics company. Defending a pharmaceutical patent case, Ms. Ziniti took key depositions on a critical issue, resulting in settlement favorable to the client shortly thereafter. Ms. Ziniti has also prosecuted trademarks before the USPTO.
Ms. Ziniti also maintains an active counseling and transactional practice in which she advises on intellectual property issues in M&A and other transactions, and drafts license and services agreements. She contributes to the firm’s social media efforts and last year published an article in Media & Entertainment Law360.
Ms. Ziniti holds a J.D. and a certificate in Law and Technology from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she earned several Jurisprudence awards and was elected to the Order of the Coif. In law school, Ms. Ziniti edited the Berkeley Technology Law Journal and served as an academic fellow in the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. Following law school, Ms. Ziniti served as law fellow in the chambers of the Honorable Carlos T. Bea at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Before law school, Ms. Ziniti was a litigation and patent paralegal and an associate product manager at Yahoo! Inc. in Sunnyvale, California. During college, Ms. Ziniti worked at a U.K. internet startup, and she is an internet and technology enthusiast and early adopter.