Harold J. McElhinny is a trial lawyer with a general federal and state court litigation practice that emphasizes intellectual property matters. His experience includes the representation of clients, as both plaintiff and defendant, in significant matters involving all aspects of patent litigation, copyright and trade secret violations, class actions, and enforcement.

Mr. McElhinny is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He was the 1996-97 President of the Northern California Association of Business Trial Lawyers. He has taught classes on trade secret law as a guest lecturer at Stanford Law School, and has taught trial advocacy in special programs at Stanford and the University of San Francisco. He is co-author of Civil Discovery Practice in California, published by California Continuing Education of the Bar, and has edited a supplement to a CEB publication on Civil Procedure Prior to Trial.

Mr. McElhinny is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (2006, 2007) as a leader in the field of intellectual property law.

Mr. McElhinny associated with Morrison & Foerster in 1976, becoming a partner of the firm in 1981. From 1996 to 1999, he served as firmwide Chair of the Litigation Department. He is currently Co-chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Group.

• Represented Nikon Corp. in patent litigation in the Northern District of California, and coordinated matters pending in the courts of Japan, Korea and Taiwan, against ASML and Carl Zeiss, SMT A.G. Matter was resolved with a $145 million payment to Nikon.
• Represented EchoStar in three-week trial before the U.S. International Trade Commission. The Administrative Law Judge ruled that EchoStar and had not infringed any of the GemStar patents at issue. This decision was adopted by the full Commission.
• Represented SRI in patent infringement action against Advanced Technology Laboratories, Inc. The U.S. District Court entered summary judgment in favor of SRI on all liability issues, subsequently affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. SRI was awarded almost $33 million.
• Led the Chiron Corp. trial team in a protracted dispute with Genentech over a method for inducing baker's yeast to secrete human insulin-like growth factor. The Federal Circuit confirmed that Chiron inventors were entitled to priority.
• Represented Dennis Erlich, a former member of the Church of Scientology, who was sued by the Church for alleged copyright and trade secret violations in connection with statements critical of Scientology posted on the Internet.