Mr. Jacobs joined Morrison & Foerster in 1984 and is a partner in its San Francisco office. He served as co-head of the firm’s 140-person Intellectual Property Group from its founding in 1990 until February 2003. He also served as the firm’s Managing Partner for Operations from 1995 to 1997.

Mr. Jacobs has concentrated his practice on litigation of high-technology and intellectual property matters. Representing a broad array of clients, Mr. Jacobs has helped to shape the laws governing emerging technologies. Early in his career, he led the technical team that represented Fujitsu Ltd . in its landmark operating system software arbitration with IBM, and represented the motion picture companies in the On Command Video case, which established that video “on demand” performances must be licensed under the copyright public performance right. He currently represents Novell in The SCO Group v. Novell , a widely publicized case involving open source software.

Mr. Jacobs litigates a wide range of patent, trademark, contract, and trade secret disputes in the information technology field, representing companies such as Altera (programmable logic devices), Analog Devices (RF digital to Analog converters) , Apple (digital rights management), Autodesk (TrustedDWG file protection), BEA Systems (load balancing and service brokering), Charles Schwab (financial information software interfaces), Novell (client-server architectures and authentication algorithms), OpenTV (interactive TV software), Panasonic Mobile (CDMA license terms), PMC-Sierra (alleged chip defects), Saba (learning systems), Scientific Learning (auditory dyslexia software), Think Outside (PDA keyboards), Thomson (MPEG packet formats), Toshiba (cell phones and flash memory devices), and Yahoo! (fantasy football programs, on-line job searches, on-line transactions, email aliasing, and geographic location services).

Mr. Jacobs also concentrates his litigation practice in the area of life sciences. He has represented Chiron in patent disputes concerning HIV and Hepatitis C, Kaiser Permanente in patent disputes concerning prenatal screening using HCG and early childhood vaccinations, Notal Vision in an arbitration with Carl Zeiss Meditec involving macular degeneration diagnostics, Peptech in an arbitration with Centocor over licensing of TNF monoclonal antibody patents, and QLT in a patent case with TAP Pharmaceuticals involving the prostrate treatments Eligard and Lupron. He currently represents Abraxis in a patent case brought by Elan relating to nanoparticle technology.

Mr. Jacobs also litigates and counsels on copyright and related matters. He represented Kumon in a dispute over the copying of its math worksheets, and has advised several photographers and academicians on copyright, plagiarism, and science fraud matters. He represented Intel in a case involving a claim of trespass to chattels based on email spam that went to the California Supreme Court and Verio in a similar case that was resolved in the 2d Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Jacobs has extensive arbitration experience, including the IBM/Fujitsu, Panasonic Mobile, Novell, Peptech and Notal cases mentioned above. Many of these matters involved the interplay between arbitration and court proceedings.

Mr. Jacobs also represented on appeal to the 9th Circuit a pro bono litigant in an important case involving church-state issues and served as co-counsel in the Williams pro bono case challenging the State of California’s lack of oversight and monitoring of conditions in California public schools.

Mr. Jacobs’ practice has led him to courts around the country, and in addition to California federal and state courts, he has substantial experience in Delaware, New York City, Chicago, and Salt Lake City.

Mr. Jacobs is co-author, with Professor Donald Chisum, of World Intellectual Property Guidebook, United States , published in 1992 by Matthew Bender & Company, New York. He has served as a member of the editorial board of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Northern California , for which he wrote a periodic column on intellectual property litigation. Mr. Jacobs also served as USA Editor for Intellectual Property Reports , published by Butterworths Australia, and as Chairman of the Computer Program Copyright Protection Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Section on Patent, Trademark and Copyright Law. He is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and serves as a judge for the Webby Awards.

Mr. Jacobs was also identified as a top 100 “Super Lawyer” by Northern California Super Lawyers and as a leading intellectual property lawyer by Chambers & Partners . He was also highly recommended by the 2006 PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook in Intellectual Property law. PLC notes Mr. Jacobs as “a highly rated contentious specialist.” In addition, Mr. Jacobs is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (2007) as a leader in the field of Intellectual Property law.

Mr. Jacobs received his B.A. degree from Stanford University in 1977, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with honors in history. He then entered the United States Foreign Service, where he held assignments in Kingston, Jamaica and Washington, D.C. Mr. Jacobs received his J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1983. At Yale, he served as a Senior Editor of The Yale Law Journal and co-founded the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Law Project.