Credentials

• Computer Hardware, Software and Services
• Electronics and Other Technology
• Telecommunications
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Energy and Utilities
• Consumer Products
• Leisure and Entertainment
• Publishing and Media

• Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Neutral, 1991-present;
• Of Counsel, Feldman Gale 2011-2015;
• Part-time General Counsel, AuriQ Systems Inc., 2011-2016.
• Retired Partner, Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP 2002-2010;
• Partner, Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly 1999-2002;
• Managing Partner LA Office Merchant & Gould 1992-1999;
• Partner Nilsson Robbins Dalgarn Berliner Carson & Wurst 1977-1992;
• Patent Counsel Hughes Aircraft 1975-1977;
• Adjunct Professor Southwestern Law School, Loyola Law School, and Masters College
• Professional Control Systems Engineer, Hughes Aircraft, 1969-1977.

• Commercial Litigation: (Contracts) creation, ownership and transfer of IP rights; manufacturing, software development, business and real estate broker, landlord / tenant agreements.   (Trademark) trademark ownership; publicity rights; rights in iPhone app; celebrity publicity rights and trademark rights in architectural works; product counterfeit matters. (Patents) infringement, ownership, patent marking and damages matters in electronics, consumer products, computer, telecommunications, medical device, oil field systems, electronic components, electro optical systems; design patent infringement; reexamination proceedings; Patent Board of Appeals; patent pools; claim construction (Markman) hearings. (Copyrights) unauthorized use of urban art in major motion picture; software copyright infringement; architectural copyright rights; fabric design copyrights; sound recordings. (Trade Secret – Unfair Competition) misappropriation of smart ID card technology including e-discovery disputes and spoliation, large scale memory technology, intraocular lens, customer lists, domain name disputes.
• Commercial Transactional: Agreements related to employment; non-disclosure; consulting; development; import-export; distribution; publicity rights; IP licensing; business broker agreements; product endorsement.
• Employment / Labor: Non-compete agreements; employer limitations of rights to employee inventions; work for hire agreements.
• Insurance: GCL coverage and duty to defend (advertising injury coverage); General liability and personal injury coverage.
• Corporate & Non-Profits: Governance; audit committee and independence; board disclosure of conflicts; board-management relations; compensation committee standards and obligations; M&A due diligence.
• Government and Regulatory: DOJ patent pool and essential patents matters; patent, trademark and copyright registration and prosecution; U.S. Customs and counterfeit product exclusion; foreign patent and trademark registration and prosecution.

• Panels
  • Member of the AAA’s Commercial Arbitration Panel.
  • Member ICDR Panel.
  • Member of USDC Central District ADR Panel;
  • LACBA Fee Arbitration Panel.
  • Agency for Dispute Resolution Panel.
  • LA Superior Court ADR Panel.
  • California Department of Insurance Mediation Panel
  • SCMA

• Arbitrations

Served as sole arbitrator, panelist, and panel chair in 50+ commercial arbitration matters. Recent matters include patent litigation; numerous patent fee disputes; Software license agreement matter; consumer education contract matter; software development contract to develop App for Android platform; business agent agreement in sale of a business; agreement related to unpermitted property improvements; post-judgment marriage dissolution matter; panel chair regarding TV rights asset purchase; panel chair in a matter of copyrighted jewelry designs; panel chair in fee dispute regarding attorney services.

• Mediations

Mediated approximately 250 matters. Recent matters include ownership interests in a screenplay; trademark infringement; patent infringement matter related to environment protection product; contract and trade secret misappropriation matter related to international manufacturing of electronic component parts; matter related to an electronic smoking pipe; matter related to optical particle counter; contract matter regarding reverse engineering and trade secret misappropriation; matter related to the sale of educational material; matter regarding inventor claim of patent ownership; dispute related to agricultural products; dispute related to commercial rights in an article of clothing; numerous personal injury and consumer matters.

• Straus Institute For Dispute Resolution “Advanced Mediation”2014;
• AAA Guided Choice: Innovations In Mediation To Get Better Settlements At Less Cost 2014;
• AAA Webinar, Managing ESI Exchanges In Arbitration- Preparing Yourself For The New Landscape And New Challenges” Part 1, 2014;
• AAA Principled Deliberations, 2014;
• ABA “Tips On Achieving Cost-Effective Arbitration” (2014);
• LACBA/AAA What Lawyers And Arbitrators Need To Know About Commercial Arbitration (2014); LAIPLA Intellectual Property Judiciary Reaction To Current IP Issues;
• Analyzing Interest To Facilitate Settlement, USDC ADR Training;
• Recent Developments In Mediation Law, USDC ADR Training;
• Ethics And ADR: Whatever Happened To Zealous Representation (Presenter-First American Title Ins. Co.);
• Advanced Mediation Training, USDC ADR Training;
• Cross-Cultural Challenges In Mediation, USDC ADR Training;
• To Caucus Or Not To Caucus, USDC ADR Training;
• Ethics 101: Mediators, Arbitrators, Attorneys – AAAU;
• How To Become A More Innovative Neutral Or Advocate AAAU:
• Applying Cutting Edge Innovation Management Techniques To Your ADR Practice, AAAU;
• Consummate Negotiation: Techniques & Tactics, AAAU;
• How Are Your (Negotiation) Table Manners?, AAAU;
• Mediation Confidentiality- USDC ADR Training;
• When Morals Meet The Mediator: The Effect Of Religion & Spirituality On Negotiation,
• ABA Section of Dispute Resolution 13^th Annual Conference
  • Bargaining With The Devil, Good Judgments, Improving Risk Assessment, Etc.;
  • Beyond Mediation Styles; Analytical Mediation;
  • What Works In Complex Mediation;
  • Accelerating The Dispute Resolution Timeline In IP Cases;
  • Arbitration – Dispute Resolution Of U.S. Olympic Etc.;
  • When Cases Don’t Settle-Mediators Part Of The Problem;
  • Re-Imaging Commercial Arbitration;
  • Court Mediation And Settlement Etc.;
  • Applying ADR To E-Discovery; A Model For Dispute Resolution;
• Strauss Institute
  • ICANN – International Top Level Domain Name Dispute Resolution Studies; Negotiation Theory & Practice;
  • Arbitration Practice And Advocacy;
  • Mediation Theory & Practice;
  • International Commercial Arbitration;
• Chairing An Arbitration Panel: Managing Procedures, Process & Dynamics, AAAU;
• Secrets For Negotiators, Mediators, And Arbitrators, ABA;
• Mandatory Fee Arbitration Training, LACBA;
• Arbitration Myth Busters, ABTL;
• Arbitration Fundamentals And Best Practices For AAA Arbitrators, AAAU
• LASC ADR Neutral Training, La Superior Court;
• LASC ADR Voluntary Settlement Conference Training;
• Dispute Resolution Services, Mediation Training, LACBA;
• Arbitration Training Institute, ABA

American Bar Association (IP, Litigation And ADR Sections); Los Angeles County Bar Association; Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association; Association Of Business Trial Lawyers; Sedona Conference Working Group On Electronic Discovery And Privacy, Confidentiality And Public Access.

“Public Policy & the Arbitrability of Intellectual Property Disputes,” ADR Times   July 2, 2013; “Building Trust in Mediation,” Dispute Resolution Magazine, Vol. 16, No. 4, Summer 2010; “E-Discovery Disputes, Mediation and Confidentiality,” Bloomberg Law Reports / Federal Practice, September 8, 2009; “Technology Basics,” eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel, Chapter 4, Thompson / West Publishing, 2008 – 2014editions; “Will Your Company Be Required To Preserve Information From Employees’ Personal Email Accounts and Computers?,” Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Client Alert, April 2007; “Wal-Mart: Has Non-Genericness Been Eliminated as an Element of a Product Configuration Trade Dress Claim?,” BNA’s Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal, March 2005.

Also participate in the drafting and enactment of California’s Anti-Counterfeiting Statutes (Business and Professions Code §§14340-14342 and Penal Code §350); Trade Secret Act (Civil Code §3426 et seq. and Code of Civil Procedure §2019(d); and Employee Rights in Inventions (Labor Code §2870).

(Presentations) “Ethics And ADR: What Ever Happened To Zealous Representation?” Presented to Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, January 10, 2013; “Cloud Computing,” 15^th Annual Electronic Discovery and Records Retention Conference, December 7, 2011; “E-Discovery for the Corporate Market,” Executive Counsel Institute, March 12- 15, 2011; “Intellectual Property Protection in International Commercial Transactions,” Conference on Future Trends in Exporting and Importing, sponsored by the Foreign Trade Association, February 17, 2011; “Controlling Your E-Discovery Destiny,” E-Discovery for the Corporate Market Conference, Executive Counsel Institute, Los Angeles, CA, December 14-15, 2010; “Getting your IM/RM House in Order,” Thomson Reuters, 14th Annual Electronic Discovery and Records Retention Conference: Achieving Practical Proportionality, Los Angeles, CA, September 14-15, 2010; “The Electronic Information Juggernaut: Taking Aim At ADR,” American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, San Francisco, CA, April 7-10, 2010; and others before 2010. (Teaching) Adjunct Professor – Business Law, Masters College Business School (2011); Patent Procedure, Southwestern Law School (1985); Copyright Law and Intellectual Property, Loyola Law School, (1982 – 1983); Copyright and Intellectual Property, American Patent Institute (1978-1980)

2014 – Advanced Mediation Training, Pepperdine University School of Law
2010 – Certificate in Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law;
1984 – National Institute for Trial Advocacy;
1978 – Advanced Copyright Law, USC;
1975 – J.D. (honors) University of La Verne College of Law;
1971 – M.S., Control Systems Engineering, UCLA;
1967 – B.S., Electronic Engineering, UCLA.

U.S. Supreme Court; Supreme Court, California; Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals; Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuits; U.S. District Court (California Central, Southern, Northern, Eastern, Wisconsin Eastern District, Nebraska), U.S. Patent Office.