Alan Cope Johnston is Managing Partner of the firm’s Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia Offices. Mr. Johnston’s litigation practice focuses on complex commercial and IP disputes involving patent infringement, theft of trade secrets and technology licensing, as well as securities and corporate governance issues. He has represented companies in the computer design and manufacturing, semiconductor processing, semiconductor equipment manufacturing, medical device, diode laser, disk drive, software development and biotechnology industries, as well as a variety of other commercial business enterprises.

Mr. Johnston is a member of the Litigation and the Science and Technology sections of the American Bar Association and the Intellectual Property Law section of the State Bar of California. He has also served as commercial arbitrator and mediator for the American Arbitration Association and a Judge Pro Tem for the Santa Clara County (California) Superior Court.

Mr. Johnston joined Morrison & Foerster in 1975, becoming a partner in 1981, and is one of the founders of the firm’s Washington D.C. and Palo Alto offices. He returned to Washington in 2006 after four years in the firm’s Tokyo office.

• Successfully represented Fujitsu Limited in various patent infringement litigation matters involving DRAMs, "smart" batteries, LCD technology, and CPU circuitry.
• Obtained dismissal on summary judgment for S-MOS Systems in a contract dispute regarding semiconductor fab capacity. Affirmed on appeal.
• Successfully represented Integratus Inc. in a suit alleging patent infringement and theft of trade secrets relating to high availability software.