Mr. Brainerd joined the firm in 1999.

Experience

His prior experience includes 28 years with the San Francisco law firm of Bronson Bronson & McKinnon, where he served on the firm’s management committee for 12 years, and approximately three years with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges as a senior partner in its Northern California office.

Mr. Brainerd has tried approximately 30 cases to verdict and has been lead counsel in six major arbitrations in which a decision was rendered. Mr. Brainerd focuses his practice on civil trial work with a major emphasis on intellectual property litigation. He has acted as lead counsel in numerous patent infringement lawsuits, several significant trade secret cases, as well as a wide range of commercial disputes, including breach of contract, fraud, professional liability and securities matters. Mr. Brainerd also has substantial experience in the construction litigation field.

Mr. Brainerd’s extensive jury trial experience includes: defense of a trade secret case involving computer software; representation of a semiconductor manufacturer in patent infringement litigation; acting as lead defense counsel in a securities fraud action in one of the longest jury trials in the history of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California; a three-month trial of an attorney malpractice case involving complex probate and securities issues relating to a take-over of a publicly traded company; and the representation of the Bank of America in a unique trial involving a bank robbery in London.

Mr. Brainerd is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has taught numerous courses on jury trial practice.

Representative Engagements

• Manders v. McGhan Medical Corp., et al., Western District of Pennsylvania. Represented Inamed Corporation in a patent infringement case involving tissue expanders used in connection with breast reconstructive surgery
• Affymetrix, Inc. v. Multilyte Ltd., Northern District of California. Represented Multilyte in a patent infringement case involving DNA microarray technology.
• Litex, Inc. v. Delphi Corporation, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Represented Delphi Automotive in patent litigation involving the removal of pollutants from diesel exhaust using non-thermal plasma technology.
• Globespan Virata, Inc. v. Texas Instruments, Inc., et al., U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Represented Texas Instruments and Stanford University in patent and antitrust litigation arising from certain patents relating to ADSL high speed modem technology.  After a five-week jury trial, the firm obtained a $112 million verdict for the client.
• Syntex (U.S.A.) LLC v. Apotex, Inc., et al., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Represented Syntex and Allergan, Inc. in patent infringement litigation arising from an ANDA for an ophthalmic formulation.  After a three-week bench trial, the firm obtained a favorable ruling for the clients. 
• ISCO International, Inc. v. Conductus, Inc., et al., U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Represented Superconductor Technologies, Inc. in patent litigation involving the application of superconductor technology to the transmission and filtering of wireless telephone transmissions.  After a three-week jury trial, the firm obtained a defense verdict for the client.
• Altera Corporation v. Xilinx, Inc., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Represented Altera in patent infringement litigation regarding three patents covering various aspects of field programmable logic device technology.
• Hoover, Inc. and Johnson Controls, Inc. v. Graham Packaging, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Represented plaintiffs in patent litigation asserting patents regarding the design and construction of hot-fill plastic containers. The case also had a major trade secret component.
• Snap-on Technologies v. SPX Corporation, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Represented Snap-on in an action alleging infringement of a patent on a programmable cable adapter used in automotive diagnostics.
• Jerome Lemelson v. Apple Computer, Inc., U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. Represented Apple in an action alleging infringement of a patent on an aspect of video recording and a patent on information recording.
• Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. v. Cypress Semiconductor Corp; Advanced Micro Devices v. Samsung Semiconductor; Advanced Micro Devices,  v. Gazelle Microcircuits; Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. v. Atmel Corporation, all in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Litigated four patent infringement actions for AMD involving patents on the macrocell of a programmable logic device, a patent on a microcontroller, and a patent on a programmable array logic device. Counterclaims were brought against AMD on patents for a logic translation circuit and an output buffer. Several of the suits also included trademark and copyright claims.
• Brooktree Corporation v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Represented AMD in a two-month jury trial of a patent infringement and mask work infringement action involving three patents on aspects of a digital to analog converter and an SRAM cell used in a color palette device.

Trade Secret Litigation

• DiMassa v. Stertzer, et al., Superior Court for the County of Sonoma. Represented plaintiffs in trade secret litigation involving the design of an expandable coronary stent.
• IBM v. Cybernex, Inc., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Represented The Hillman Company in trade secret litigation concerning thin film head and disk drive technology in which IBM asserted that The Hillman Company, as an investor, had aided and abetted in the misappropriation of trade secrets.
• ECI Telecom LTD, v. Amati Communications Corporation, Superior Court, County of Santa Clara. Represented Amati, a wholly owned subsidiary of Texas Instruments Incorporated, in a breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secret case relating to high-speed modems.
• Beyond Words Corporation v. Samna Corporation, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Represented Samna, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lotus, Inc., in a trade secret case involving computer software technology.  After a three-week jury trial, obtained a defense verdict for the client. 
• IBM v. Read-Rite Corporation, Superior Court for the County of Santa Clara. Represented IBM in a trade secret case relating to magnetoresistive heads, which are the read-rite mechanisms in current disk drive technology.

General Commercial Litigation

• Computer Associates International, Inc. v. TJB Ventures, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Represented Computer Associates in a copyright, trade secret, and breach of contract matter relating to software technology.
• Kligman v. Advanced Polymer Systems, Inc., U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Represented Advanced Polymer Systems in a breach of contract matter arising out of a license agreement allegedly covering a skin treatment product.
• Elgaway v. Watkins-Johnson Company, Superior Court for the County of Santa Clara. Represented Watkins-Johnson Company in a breach of contract action arising out of a stock option agreement.
• IBM v. Polteco, Inc., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Represented IBM in a breach-of-contract and trade secret dispute relating to ultra-high molecular weight polymer technology. The litigation sought to resolve the ownership of seven patents relating to the technology.
• Vinning Sparks, a Limited Partnership v. First Alliance Mortgage Corporation, Arbitration. Represented First Alliance Mortgage Corporation in a fraud, breach-of-contract, and breach-of-fiduciary duty action concerning the securitization of sub-prime loans.  After a four-week arbitration, obtained a favorable verdict for the client. 
• Hemascience, Inc. v. Baxter Travenol Incorporated, Superior Court of City and County of San Francisco. A breach-of-contract action arising from the sale of technology concerning automated blood separation.
• Homestake Mining Company v. Deloite & Touche, Superior Court of City and County of San Francisco. Represented Homestake Mining Company in an action for professional malpractice arising from the preparation of a tax return and the treatment in that return of the transfer of assets to a foreign jurisdiction. After a six-week jurt trial, obtained a $4.8 million verdit for the client.
• Lockheed v. Federal-Mogul Corporation and Wagner Electric, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Represented Federal Mogul in dispute concerning ownership of certain Lockheed trademarks.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

• Member of the Early Neutral Evaluation and Mediation panels of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
• Have mediated more than forty cases through the federal programs and also as a privately-retained mediator.
• Acted as a special master to resolve all of the discovery and pre-trial disputes in a patent and trade secret case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
• Acted as a special master to resolve the terms and conditions of a licensing agreement and all outstanding discovery and pre-trial disputes in an anti-trust action relating to computer hardware and software technology.

Speaking Engagements

• "Non-Infringing Alternatives in Damages Analysis", USC Intellectual Property Institute (March 2008)
• Recent Developments on the "On Sale Bar", San Francisco Bay Area Intellectual Property Inn of Court (March 2002)
• "Conducting the Effective Mock Trial: Preparing the Roadmap to Victory (or Settlement)", Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL) (February 2002)
• National Institute for Trial Advocacy (taught numerous trial practice courses)
• Trial Advocacy Program: Hastings College of the Law (1985-1995)
• Federal Practice Program for the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Education Committee and Instructor
• "Managing IP Litigation" presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Corporate Counsel of America (ACCA) (2001)
• Obtaining Legal Advice Regarding Patents: Who, What , When, How and Why Heller Ehrman Client Presentation; (Dec. 2000)
• How to Handle A Bet-Your-Company Patent Case, Price Waterhouse Intellectual Property Lecture Series, (1997)
• Preparing the Competitive Business Case, California Continuing Education Program, (1997)
• American Arbitration Association Program. "Stuck with a Big Case in Arbitration, How to Win It;" (1990)
• "Architectural and Engineering Malpractice," seminar given twice annually for Federal Publications. In conjunction with seminar, prepared 400-page manual related to law and the practical aspects of defending architects and engineers (1980-1990)