Gary Weiss,

a senior partner in the Intellectual Property Group, focuses his practice on civil and criminal matters involving trade secrets, inevitable misappropriation, industrial espionage and employee raiding. Gary is the former chair of Orrick's Intellectual Property Group (2006-2011); Managing Partner, North America (2008-2009); and Silicon Valley Office Leader (1997-2007).

Gary has represented clients such as Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Affymetrix, Inc., Agilent Technologies, Inc., Applied Materials, Inc., Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., CNET Networks, Inc., Facebook, Genentech, Lucent Technologies, Handspring, Inc., Harris Corporation, Juniper Networks, Siebel Systems, Inc., and Wind River Systems, Inc., in civil and criminal matters involving trade secrets, inevitable misappropriation, industrial espionage and employee raiding. The following are some of his more notable engagements.

Representative Trade Secret Cases

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.:

AMD v. Hyundai America, Inc. (Santa Clara Sup. Ct. 1996, 6th Dist. Ct. App. 1996, Cal. Supreme Ct. 1996). Mr. Weiss obtained for AMD, and successfully defended in appellate writ proceedings, a preliminary injunction regarded as the first "inevitable misappropriation" injunction ever issued in California, in a trade secret and employee raiding case involving flash memory semiconductor technology.
Silvaco Data Systems v. AMD (Santa Clara Sup. Ct. 2006). Mr. Weiss represented AMD in this trade secrets case involving semiconductor design software.

Agilent Technologies, Inc.:

Silvaco Data Systems v. Agilent Technologies, Inc. (Santa Clara Sup. Ct. 2008; Sixth District Court of Appeal 2010). Mr. Weiss represented Agilent in this trade secret case involving semiconductor design software. Agilent obtained summary judgment dismissing the action in its entirety. The case was argued in the Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, State of California, in April, 2010 and the Sixth Appellate District affirmed the judgment in May, 2010.

Applied Materials, Inc.:

Applied Materials v. Semiconductor Equipment Specialists, Inc. (Arizona Sup. Ct. 2006). Mr. Weiss represented Applied Materials as plaintiff in this matter involving trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract, conversion and unfair competition. Applied Materials obtained a Temporary Restraining Order, and ultimately a stipulated injunction against Semiconductor Equipment Specialists (SES) that enjoined SES from using or disclosing Applied Materials' trade secrets and confidential information.
Applied Materials v. Certified Applied Technology, Inc. (Santa Clara Sup. Ct. 2004). Mr. Weiss represented Applied Materials as plaintiff in this trade secret case involving Applied Material's PVD semiconductor manufacturing technology. He obtained for Applied first a preliminary injunction precluding defendants' sales and servicing of equipment, and later a permanent injunction and substantial monetary payment in settlement of the dispute.
Semitool, Inc. v. R.W. Berner (Montana Eleventh Judicial District Court, July 1999). Mr. Weiss represented the defendant, the CTO hired by Applied Materials, in a trade secrets and inevitable disclosure case involving copper semiconductor manufacturing technology. Mr. Weiss defeated the plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction, and later obtained a summary judgment on all of plaintiff's claims.
Applied Materials, Inc. v. McDowell & Co. (N.D. Tex. 2000 and N.D. Cal. 2002). Mr. Weiss represented plaintiff Applied Materials in litigation of trade secret and copyright claims involving semiconductor manufacturing equipment technology, and internal coordination of federal criminal prosecution regarding the matter. He obtained a preliminary injunction against the defendants in February 1999. The case settled thereafter with a permanent injunction and a substantial cash payment to Applied Materials.
Applied Materials, Inc. v. Semiconductor Spares, Inc. (N.D. Cal. 1995 and 1999). Mr. Weiss represented plaintiff Applied Materials in litigation of trade secret, copyright, and RICO claims involving semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and internal coordination of simultaneous federal criminal prosecution of the same conduct. He obtained a preliminary and permanent injunction against the defendant, after which the defendant ceased doing business.

Extreme Networks, Inc.:

Network Peripherals Inc. v. Extreme Networks Inc. (Santa Clara Sup. Ct. 1997). Mr. Weiss represented defendant Extreme Networks in litigation of trade secret, inevitable disclosure and unfair competition claims involving networking software and custom chips. He defeated the plaintiff's application for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. The case settled thereafter, with no injunction, job restrictions, or cash payments of any kind.

Genentech:

Johnson & Johnson v. Genentech (N.D. Cal. 2006). Mr. Weiss represented Genentech as defendant against claims for employee raiding, tortious interference and unfair competition. Johnson & Johnson complained that Genentech "raided" 10 key employees from J&J's Vistakon group throughout the United States, and hired them to work on Genentech's new Lucentis drug – the first drug capable of addressing macular degeneration and actually improving the eyesight of sufferers of this disease. The court granted Genentech's motion to dismiss, and the case ended shortly thereafter with no injunction or damages whatsoever paid by Genentech or any of its employees.

Harris Corporation:

Harris Corporation v. Caly Networks (W.D. Wash. 2001). Mr. Weiss represented plaintiff Harris in a trade secret case involving TDD broadband wireless technology. He obtained a stipulated injunction precluding the use or disclosure of trade secrets through, among other things, "clean room" segregation of departing employees and imposition of a neutral third-party inspector to monitor and report on defendants’ activities.
Harris Semiconductor v. Semtech (D.N.C. 1998). Mr. Weiss represented Harris as plaintiff in litigation of trade secret claims involving Harris' semiconductor technology.

iHello.com:

Onebox.com, Inc., v. iHello.com (San Mateo Sup. Ct. 1999). Mr. Weiss represented the defendant in litigation of trade secret claims involving Internet voice mail and facsimile technology. He defeated the plaintiff's application for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction for alleged threatened and inevitable misappropriation. The case settled thereafter, with no injunction, job restrictions, or cash payments of any kind.

Protiva Biotherapeutics, Inc.:

Protiva Biotherapeutics, Inc. v. Sirna Therapeutics, Inc. (SF Superior Ct. 2007). Mr. Weiss represented Protiva Biotherapeutics, Inc. in a trade secrets case filed in the State Court of California involving allegations that defendant Sirna Therapeutics, Inc. misappropriated Protiva's technology for the systemic delivery of small interfacing RNA (siRNA). We argued for and obtained a sweeping preliminary injunction for Protiva and the case subsequently settled.

Siebel Systems, Inc.:

Siebel Systems, Inc., v. SAP Labs (Santa Clara Sup. Ct. 2000). Mr. Weiss represented the plaintiff Siebel Systems in multistate trade secret, inevitable disclosure and unfair competition litigation involving B2B and CRM software technology.