Michael A. Jacobs

Partner

San Francisco, (415) 268-7455

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Education

Stanford University (B.A., 1977)
;
Yale Law School (J.D., 1983)

Practices

Intellectual Property Litigation

Patent Litigation

Trade Secrets

Bar Admissions

California

Michael Jacobs is the co-founder and current co-chair of the firm's Intellectual Property Practice Group. Mr. Jacobs concentrates his practice on litigation of high-technology and intellectual property matters. He has represented information technology and life sciences companies in over 25 patent lawsuits, often prevailing at early stages of the dispute. He has also handled numerous high-profile arbitrations, several of which involved the interplay between arbitration and court proceedings.

Mr. Jacobs' work in several landmark cases has helped to shape the laws governing emerging technologies. Early in his career, he led the technical team that represented Fujitsu in its landmark operating system software arbitration with IBM. He represents Novell in the widely-reported SCO v. Novell litigation. After a three-week trial in the case in March 2010, the jury affirmed Novell's ownership of the UNIX software code and rejected SCO's claim for damages of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Before starting his legal career, Mr. Jacobs held assignments with the United States Foreign Service in Kingston, Jamaica and Washington, D.C.

While earning his J.D., Mr. Jacobs was a Senior Editor of The Yale Law Journal and co-founded the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Law Project. He currently teaches Trade Secrets at UC Berkeley Law School.

SCO Group v. Novell

(District of Utah). Prevailed in three-week jury trial in Salt Lake City when a jury determined that Novell owned the copyrights to the UNIX computer operating system. (2010) In an earlier trial, won multi-million dollar award for Novell based on its right to royalty payments from UNIX software licenses granted by SCO. (2008)

Media Queue v. Netflix

(Northern District of California). Defeated plaintiff on summary judgment in patent infringement lawsuit related to the Netflix DVD “queue.” Currently representing Netflix in plaintiff’s Federal Circuit appeal.

Monec v. Apple

(Eastern District of Virginia). Defeated plaintiff on summary judgment in patent infringement lawsuit related to iPhone. Case resolved while plaintiff’s Federal Circuit appeal was pending.

Autodesk v. SolidWorks

(Northern District of California). Represented Autodesk in trademark infringement action relating to protectibility of Autodesk’s “DWG” mark. Obtained consent judgment of trademark validity as part of settlement.

Tap v. QLT

(Northern District of Illinois). Settled case in damages phase after liability was established under previous counsel in resorbable polymer patent infringement action brought against client QLT, a biopharmaceutical company.

Discovery Communications, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.

(District of Delaware). Representing Discovery Communications in a patent infringement suit against Amazon.com alleging infringement by Amazon's Kindle of Discovery’s patents for e-book reader technology.

Vernor v. Autodesk

(Western District of Washington; Ninth Circuit). Representing Autodesk in Ninth Circuit appeal of a ruling regarding software licensing and the first-sale doctrine under copyright law. Brought in to defend Autodesk after motion to dismiss was denied.

Fantasy Sports Properties Inc. v. Yahoo!

(Eastern District of Virginia; Federal Circuit). Prevailed on Federal Circuit appeal after winning early motion for summary judgment of non-infringement on behalf of Yahoo! in patent infringement suit involving computerized fantasy football games. Successfully represented and currently representing Yahoo! in other patent infringement actions.

Minebea Co. v. Think Outside

(Southern District of California; Federal Circuit). Won affirmance in the Federal Circuit of summary judgment victory on behalf of portable keyboard designer Think Outside in a patent infringement action involving Think Outside's stowaway portable keyboard.

Autodesk Canada Co. v. Assimilate

(District of Delaware). Currently representing Autodesk in copyright infringement suit concerning visual effects editing software. Autodesk purchased the intellectual property to the software from an English company in bankruptcy. Autodesk later discovered that one of the principal programmers of the software had improperly retained a copy of the source code, started his own company, and begun selling a visual effects editing program with a suspiciously similar user interface.

Notal Vision v. Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc.

(ICDR Arbitration). Won arbitration award, including attorneys' fees, of $10-million in representation of Israeli early-stage opthalmological diagnostic equipment company, Notal, in distributorship dispute with Carl Zeiss Meditec.