Warren Braunig

We successfully defended cloud-based telephony and unified messaging provider Dialpad in a patent infringement action brought by competitor RingCentral in the Northern District of California. Dialpad obtained a ruling that all five asserted patents claim ineligible subject matter.

We defended Gerard Williams, a celebrated chip designer, in a case brought by Apple claiming that he breached contractual agreements and misappropriated trade secrets when he founded Nuvia, Inc., a leading-edge microchip company ultimately acquired by Qualcomm. The case was successfully resolved before trial.

For more than a decade, we have represented the San Diego County Water Authority in litigation against the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the regional water wholesaler for most of Southern California. We have led them through three separate trials, and represented them in three separate appeals, resulting in more than $100 million in recovered damages, interest and attorneys’ fees, plus legal victories that have provided more than $1 billion in long-term benefit to the Water Authority.

We won a complete defense verdict for our multinational law firm client, and three individual law firm partners, in a malpractice claim arising out of patent litigation in the ITC and Delaware. The plaintiffs had alleged more than a dozen individual acts of malpractice and sought $60+ million in damages. After a hard-fought two-week arbitration before a retired federal judge in New York, the arbitrator issued an award in our clients’ favor.

We are defending Commercial Real Estate Exchange, Inc. (CREXi), a fast-growing commercial real estate marketplace, against a copyright and unfair competition lawsuit brought by industry giant CoStar.

We represented software innovator SRS Acquiom in a trade-secrets misappropriation case against PNC Bank and two former SRS employees, alleging that the employees improperly retained SRS confidential information and used it, with PNC, to unfairly compete against SRS for online M&A payments-and-escrow business.

We represented IT software innovator Cherwell Software in a patent-infringement case in Colorado brought by industry giant BMC Software, alleging infringement of seven software patents. After fifteen months of intensive litigation, we were able to resolve the case for Cherwell on favorable terms.

We represented real-estate startup CREXi and its Chief Executive Officer in bet-the-company litigation brought by industry giant Ten-X involving claims of trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract. Ten-X asserted in litigation that it was entitled to millions of dollars in damages, plus ownership of CREXi. After a year of very hard-fought litigation, CREXi was able to resolve the case for a minimal cost-of-defense settlement and was free to continue serving the commercial real estate market.

We represented Roche in a dispute concerning a breach of the company’s Collaboration Agreement with Plexxikon, Inc., now a subsidiary of Daiichi Sankyo. The agreement provides Plexxikon funding and Roche license to develop and commercialize certain drug candidates, which it successfully did with Zelboraf, a cancer-fighting drug. The agreement also provides Roche the right to bring litigation to enforce certain of Plexxikon’s patents implicated by the Collaboration Agreement. Plexxikon pursued a patent enforcement lawsuit against Novartis, which culminated in a $178 million judgment in favor of Plexxikon. However, under Plexxikon’s Collaboration Agreement with Roche, Roche should have been notified about the infringement and given the first right to proceed and control the litigation against Novartis, and was entitled to a portion of the proceeds of that litigation. We settled the dispute favorably.

We represented SanDisk in a massive trade secret misappropriation and corporate espionage case. SanDisk, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, sued competitor SK Hynix for misappropriating approximately ten gigabytes of highly confidential trade secret information and using that information over the course of six years to revamp Hynix’s technology and unfairly compete with SanDisk. We obtained a sweeping preliminary injunction that barred Hynix from any further use or disclosure of stolen SanDisk information, and fought back efforts to dismiss the case, to send it to arbitration, to transfer it overseas, and to remove it from the court that granted the preliminary injunction. Following a series of courtroom victories for our client, the parties reached a confidential settlement and entered into a product supply agreement.

We defended SaaS CRM company Freshworks in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit brought by rival Zoho in the Northern District of California. We successfully narrowed the case with an early motion to dismiss, and, after eighteen months of intensive litigation, negotiated a settlement that cleared the way for Freshworks to become a publicly traded company.

We represent non-profit Wetlands Preservation Foundation, based in Stockton, California, in litigation against the California Department of Water Resources and The Nature Conservancy concerning gross mismanagement of Staten Island—an island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that is a critical wildlife habitat for migratory birds as well as an important agricultural resource. Following a ten-day bench trial, the Court issued a writ of mandate against the Department of Water Resources and held that it had failed to comply with its public trust obligations on Staten Island.

We represented the Qvale Auto Group and its president Bruce Qvale in bitterly-contested litigation concerning the $100+ million estate of auto industry pioneer Kjell Qvale. We successfully defended our clients against claims of elder abuse and undue influence, ultimately obtaining a highly favorable settlement on the eve of trial.

We represented TSMC against China's then-leading semiconductor manufacturer, SMIC, in the largest trade secret misuse case tried to date. SMIC owed its very existence to technology stolen from our client. Following a jury verdict on liability in favor of TSMC, SMIC agreed to pay $200 million in cash and approximately $130 million of its company stock. The case serves as precedent for the strong protection afforded by California's trade secret statute, even where the actual theft occurred in Asia.

We represented SanDisk in a massive trade secret misappropriation and corporate espionage case. SanDisk, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, sued competitor SK Hynix for misappropriating approximately ten gigabytes of highly confidential trade secret information and using that information over the course of six years to revamp Hynix’s technology and unfairly compete with SanDisk. We obtained a sweeping preliminary injunction that barred Hynix from any further use or disclosure of stolen SanDisk information, and fought back efforts to dismiss the case, to send it to arbitration, to transfer it overseas, and to remove it from the court that granted the preliminary injunction. Following a series of courtroom victories for our client, the parties reached a confidential settlement and entered into a product supply agreement.

We represented real-estate startup CREXi and its Chief Executive Officer in bet-the-company litigation brought by industry giant Ten-X involving claims of trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract. Ten-X asserted in litigation that it was entitled to millions of dollars in damages, plus ownership of CREXi. After a year of very hard-fought litigation, CREXi was able to resolve the case for a minimal cost-of-defense settlement and was free to continue serving the commercial real estate market.

We represented IT software innovator Cherwell Software in a patent-infringement case in Colorado brought by industry giant BMC Software, alleging infringement of seven software patents. After fifteen months of intensive litigation, we were able to resolve the case for Cherwell on favorable terms.

We successfully defended cloud-based telephony and unified messaging provider Dialpad in a patent infringement action brought by competitor RingCentral in the Northern District of California. Dialpad obtained a ruling that all five asserted patents claim ineligible subject matter.

We represent Sonitum, a start-up focused on mobile applications for the hearing-impaired, in a complicated and contentious multi-year dispute with a founder and former employee that touches on corporate law, contract law, employment law, and intellectual property law.

We helped Lam Research Corp. bring and successfully resolve a trade secrets misappropriation and breach of contract claim against two employees who departed for their lead competitor, taking with them Lam’s confidential information relating to its R&D prototyping program. Within three months of filing suit, we obtained the return of all stolen materials and a preliminary injunction preventing future use of Lam’s information and trade secrets.

We represented TSMC against China's then-leading semiconductor manufacturer, SMIC, in the largest trade secret misuse case tried to date. SMIC owed its very existence to technology stolen from our client. Following a jury verdict on liability in favor of TSMC, SMIC agreed to pay $200 million in cash and approximately $130 million of its company stock. The case serves as precedent for the strong protection afforded by California's trade secret statute, even where the actual theft occurred in Asia.

An Internet company based in Lafayette, Louisiana filed suit in its local federal court against Google for trademark infringement and unfair competition. The plaintiff alleged Google's various uses of the term "gadget" infringed the federal trademarks "website gadget" and "gadget." We represented Google, and counterclaimed to cancel both marks as not protectable under either federal or Louisiana law because they are generic or at best descriptive and have not attained secondary meaning. The court agreed with us and granted summary judgment, canceling the marks and dismissing the lawsuit.

A toy developer sued our client Cepia for allegedly using misappropriated trade secrets to develop Cepia’s award-wining line of ZhuZhu robotic toys. We obtained Rule 11 sanctions for the pleading of factually baseless allegations as well as the dismissal of five of the plaintiff’s six claims. Shortly thereafter, the plaintiff agreed to dismiss the final claim and issue a public acknowledgement of no misconduct and independent development by Cepia.

We won a complete defense verdict for our multinational law firm client, and three individual law firm partners, in a malpractice claim arising out of patent litigation in the ITC and Delaware. The plaintiffs had alleged more than a dozen individual acts of malpractice and sought $60+ million in damages. After a hard-fought two-week arbitration before a retired federal judge in New York, the arbitrator issued an award in our clients’ favor.

For more than a decade, we have represented the San Diego County Water Authority in litigation against the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the regional water wholesaler for most of Southern California. We have led them through three separate trials, and represented them in three separate appeals, resulting in more than $100 million in recovered damages, interest and attorneys’ fees, plus legal victories that have provided more than $1 billion in long-term benefit to the Water Authority.

We secured a favorable settlement for Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) in this groundbreaking antitrust and right of publicity class action. Current and former student-athletes claimed EA improperly used the athletes’ likenesses and biographical information in its NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball video games.

We represented the Qvale Auto Group and its president Bruce Qvale in bitterly-contested litigation concerning the $100+ million estate of auto industry pioneer Kjell Qvale. We successfully defended our clients against claims of elder abuse and undue influence, ultimately obtaining a highly favorable settlement on the eve of trial.