Alex S. Yap
Alex Yap co-chairs the firm’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) practice and is a member of Morrison Foerster’s IP Litigation practice. As a former administrative patent law judge at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), he helps clients navigate post-grant adversarial proceedings before the PTAB. He focuses his practice on America Invents Act trials before the PTAB, as well as IP litigation matters.
Prior to rejoining the firm, Alex served as an administrative patent judge at the USPTO in San Jose, California. In that capacity, he presided over more than 200 ex parte appeals, inter partes reviews, and covered business method patent proceedings.
Utilizing his electrical and computer engineering degrees and experience from senior engineering roles, Alex spent 11 years at MoFo advising technology clients on patent litigations. During that time, he was involved in more than 30 USPTO reexamination/review proceedings and obtained cancellations of asserted claims in numerous cases.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Alex spent more than four years as a circuit design engineer for Freescale (formerly Motorola, Inc.) and Analog Devices, Inc., designing embedded non-volatile (flash) memories and asymmetric digital subscriber line chipsets. During that time, he developed extensive expertise in computer hardware and software architecture, communication systems, digital and analog circuit design, and digital signal processing. He has published numerous technical articles in trade journals and is an inventor on multiple U.S. patents.
Alex received his B.S. and M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1993 and 1998, respectively, and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2005. He was an editor of The Minnesota Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.
Alex is a member of the California State Bar and is registered to practice before the USPTO. He is also a member of the American Association of Patent Judges.
Experience
Vehicle IP LLC v. General Motors, et al.
(Western District of Wisconsin). Successfully defended Networks in Motion and Cellco Partnership (d/b/a Verizon Wireless) in patent litigation involving downloadable turn-by-turn GPS navigation technology for cellular phones and obtained a victory on summary judgment of non-infringement affirmed by Federal Circuit.
Black Hills Media v. Yamaha Corp. of America
(Central District of California). Successfully defended Yamaha in a patent suit alleging infringement by AV receivers and home theater systems. Case was dismissed after five of six patents in suit were found unpatentable by the PTAB.
Altera v. LSI Corp.
(Northern District of California). Successful early resolution of a declaratory judgment patent infringement action involving 12 patents relating to computer architecture, circuit design, and semiconductor layout.
Altera v. Mosaid Technologies
(Northern District of California). Successful early resolution of a declaratory judgment patent infringement action concerning computer architecture and memory circuit design.
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. v. Toppoly Optoelectronics Corp., et al.
(Central District of California). Represented defendants in patent litigation involving low-temperature polysilicon TFT technology for display panels. A favorable settlement was reached prior to trial.
Rankings
Recommended, Patent Litigation
The Legal 500 USA 2023