Mr. Chris Ottenweller,

a partner in the Silicon Valley office, is a member of the Intellectual Property group.

Mr. Ottenweller’s practice focuses on patents, copyrights, trade secrets and complex technology disputes. His cases involve cutting-edge legal issues and run the full gamut of technologies, including smartphones, tablets, mobile devices, semiconductors, GPUs, computers, operating systems, graphical user interfaces, flash memory and many other technologies. Mr. Ottenweller has served as first-chair counsel in more than 75 cases, successfully resolving virtually every one of them; and has tried many cases to judgment, in all types of forums, including jury trials, bench trials, the ITC and arbitrations.

Mr. Ottenweller is a nationally recognized trial lawyer representing many of the world’s leading technology companies in IP and complex litigation; and is consistently recognized as a leading lawyer in the IP field in legal publicans such as Chambers USA. The California Daily Journal repeatedly recognized him as one of California’s best intellectual property litigators in its annual survey of the best attorneys. Corporate Counsel magazine has featured his victories in a number of high-profile cases. The following is a list of some of his current and past representative cases.

Oasis Research LLC v. EMC Corp. (EDTX). Mr. Ottenweller was lead counsel for EMC in a jury trial in Sherman, Texas resulting in the invalidation of all of plaintiff’s patents. The case was featured in the National Public Radio program “When Patents Attack” and cited by various legal publications as a leading defense victory of 2013.
In The Matter of Certain Electronic Devices with Image Processing Systems, etc. (S3 Graphics v. Apple). Mr. Ottenweller was lead counsel for Apple in this International Trade Commission proceeding, in which S3 Graphics, a subsidiary of HTC, accused all key Apple products - iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac computers, Mac OS - of infringing patents relating to image compression. In December 2011, the Commission handed Apple a complete victory, finding no violation and invalidating 10 of the 12 S3G patent claims. Corporate Counsel magazine selected the victory as the most significant intellectual property win of 2011.
BIAX v. NVIDIA and Sony (D. Colo.). Mr. Ottenweller was lead counsel for NVIDIA in a patent infringement action accusing NVIDIA’s graphical processing units (GPUs). The Orrick team obtained summary judgment of non-infringement, which was affirmed by the Federal Circuit, and was awarded more than US$1.3 million in attorneys fees on account of BIAX’s bad faith litigation.
Fast Memory Erase LLC v. Intel Corp. (N.D. Texas). Mr. Ottenweller represented Intel, Numonyx, Micron, Apple and Sony Ericsson in this patent infringement action filed by an Acacia subsidiary attacking flash memory products. The Orrick team obtained a summary judgment of non-infringement.
Hewlett-Packard Co. v. EMC Corp. (N.D. Cal.). Mr. Ottenweller represented EMC against Hewlett-Packard in patent litigation relating to a variety of technologies, including data storage, computers, servers and printers. EMC asserted multiple patents in a counterclaim for infringement. After Markman and summary judgment proceedings, the case settled with HP agreeing to pay EMC US$400 million, one of the largest patent settlements on record. EMC paid nothing.
Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Acer Computer (ITC; EDTX). Mr. Ottenweller represented Acer Computer in an ITC Section 337 action and two Federal Court actions brought by Hewlett-Packard alleging infringement of multiple patents. The ITC action was tried in February 2008 and settled shortly thereafter.
Authenex v. EMC Corp. (C.D. Cal.). A non-practicing entity sued EMC for patent infringement involving RSA tokens. After obtaining a favorable claim construction ruling, EMC obtained summary judgment of non-infringement. Authenex’s attempts to resurrect the lawsuit on the basis of a continuation patent were successfully rebuffed.
Silvaco v. Intel (Santa Clara County Superior Court). Mr. Ottenweller was lead counsel for Intel in a high-profile trade secrets misappropriation lawsuit that generated widespread interest in the industry and within legal circles. Silvaco, a supplier of CAD software, sued Intel and other semiconductor manufacturers accusing them of trade secret misappropriation by using software they obtained from a vendor who Silvaco accused of stealing source code. Intel won summary judgment dismissing the action in its entirety, a victory affirmed through all appellate courts, including California Supreme Court. See 184 Cal. App. 4th 210
Storage Technology Inc. v. EMC Corp. (N.D. Cal.). Mr. Ottenweller represented EMC in a patent and licensing lawsuit with Storage Technology, which accused EMC of patent infringement. The case was tried on EMC’s defense that it had a license. EMC prevailed on its defense, obtained dismissal of the action, which was affirmed by the Federal Circuit.
Acxiom Corp. v. Axiom, Inc (D. Del.). Mr. Ottenweller was lead counsel for plaintiff Acxiom Corp. in a 3-week trial involving claims of trademark infringement. Acxiom prevailed at trial and obtained a permanent injunction. 27 F.Supp. 2d 478 (D. Del. 1998). The reported decision addresses a number of issues of trademark law, including the “initial confusion” doctrine and confusion among investors.