Brent K. Yamashita

Brent K. Yamashita

Partner
About

Brent Yamashita is a patent litigator and prosecutor in our Silicon Valley office. Over the past 24 years, Brent has represented technology companies from around the globe. In his patent litigation practice, he has successfully represented clients such as Toshiba, Kioxia, Samsung, GSI, KUKA, and Supermicro in patent litigation in the International Trade Commission (ITC), federal district courts, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In his patent prosecution practice, Brent brings a litigator's perspective and intensity to his work for clients in obtaining patents in hardware and software technologies. Brent is the Chair of AAPEX, the firm's Asian American Pacific Islander resource group.

Bar admissionsCaliforniaUnited States Patent and Trademark Office
CourtsUnited States District Court for the Northern District of CaliforniaUnited States District Court for the Southern District of CaliforniaUnited States District Court for the Central District of CaliforniaUnited States District Court for the District of HawaiiUnited States Court of Appeals for the Federal CircuitUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

EXPERIENCE

Representative Patent Litigation Experience
  • Brent has argued twelve claim construction hearings in the ITC and federal district courts, most recently before Judge Albright in the Western District of Texas. He has tried nine cases before the ITC and federal district courts.
  • SpaceTime3D v. LGE: Currently representing LGE in the Eastern District of Texas in a patent infringement case involving 3D and 2D GUIs.
  • Philips v. Lenovo: Currently representing Lenovo in the District of Delaware in a patent infringement case involving device authentication.
  • CUPP v. Trend Micro: Obtained a finding of indefiniteness in a claim construction proceeding in the Northern District of Texas for a term appearing in all asserted claims for two patents. 
  • Intellectual Ventures v. Toshiba: Obtained summary judgment of invalidity based on a prior art reference in the District of Delaware for a patent involving a packet-to-ATA bridge in a storage device.
Representative Inter Partes Review (IPR) Experience
  • Brent has initiated dozens of IPR proceedings and has argued as lead counsel in numerous oral argument sessions before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Representative Patent Prosecution Experience

Electrical Devices and Systems

  • Brent has prepared and prosecuted numerous applications for electrical devices and systems, including flash memory circuits, hardware for neural networks, LED controllers, solid state drives, ultrasound controllers, and speakers.

Software

  • Brent has prepared and prosecuted numerous applications for device-side and server-side software, including cyberattack prevention software, software-based storage solutions, music and video applications for mobile devices, social media user interfaces, video editing platforms, web server registration and blockchain technologies.
Education
  • J.D., University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
  • B.S.E., Princeton University
    Electrical Engineering, Certificate from the School of Public and International Affairs

Bylines

  • "Navigating Patent Inventorship Disputes: Humans and Generative AI," InformationWeek, June 27, 2023
  • "Guidance Still Lacking on Software Patent Eligibility," The Daily Journal, April 11, 2018
  • "In the ITC: The public interest factors – newest patent troll countermeasure," DLA Piper Intellectual Property and Technology News, June 4, 2013
  • "Leveraging the Personality Type of a Technical Witness to Your Advantage," The San Francisco Daily Journal, 2010
  • "Secondary Considerations of Obviousness in a Patent Case: The Seldom-Used Simultaneous Invention Factor," IPO Daily News, July 14, 2008

Seminars

  • PLI faculty member at annual Patent Law Institute in San Francisco for seven years running on topics related to inter partes review (IPR) proceedings in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), 2017-2023
  • Global IP ConfEx, "Patenting Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Just a Playground for Tech Giants or Nerdy Startups?," co-panelist, 2023
  • Berkeley-Stanford Advanced Patent Law Institute, "Arthrex and the Future of the PTAB," co-presenter, 2021
  • IP Counsel Cafe, "Patent Portfolio: Organizing, Analyzing & Communicating Value," moderator of panel discussion, 2020

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