David Elkins leads Squire Sanders’ global Intellectual Property & Technology Practice Group and has an established reputation for delivering client successes both in the courtroom and beyond. With expertise in all areas of patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, cybersquatting and high technology litigation, his practice is nationwide in scope, having successfully represented clients in trial courts and courts of appeals across the United States. David also has substantial international and domestic dispute resolution experience, having represented clients in proceedings before the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration (ICC) in San Francisco and Geneva, the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in the United States and the Japan Commercial Arbitration Association in Tokyo.

He authored “NEC v. Intel: Using Clean Room Procedures as Evidence,” published in The Computer Law Journal, and has served as a faculty member for the Practising Law Institute’s How to Prepare & Conduct Markman Hearings.

David is the chair of the Silicon Valley Board of Directors of Playworks Education Energized, a national nonprofit organization that supports learning at low-income, urban schools by transforming recess and play into a positive experience that helps kids and teachers get the most out of every learning opportunity throughout the school day.

Representative Experience

• Representing sugar growers and producers before the US District Court, Central District of California in a false advertising action under the Lanham Act and California unfair competition law against corn refiners and their lobbying group over their effort to rebrand high-fructose corn syrup as “corn sugar.”
• Defending, as lead counsel, our multinational client and its subsidiary in the Santa Clara County Superior Court against claims of trade secret misappropriation and breach of a non-disclosure agreement arising out of a meeting with the founder of a failed start-up semiconductor company.
• Representing before the US District Court, District of Delaware a branded pharmaceutical company and its US subsidiary in a Hatch-Waxman Act patent infringement action against a would-be generic manufacturer of our clients’ blockbuster adhesive patch used to treat complications from the shingles virus.
• Representing successfully in federal trial and appellate litigation a semiconductor manufacturer and its subsidiaries against patent infringement claims based on multiplexing semiconductor circuitry; all patent claims were held invalid.
• Acting as lead trial counsel before the AAA and the US District Court, Northern District of Ohio for a manufacturing company asserting patent infringement claims against its archrival, winning an award of infringement, damages in the form of lost profits and a permanent injunction.
• Acting as lead arbitration hearing counsel representing a Japan-based integrated circuit design company before the ICC against a Taiwan-based turnkey manufacturer of defective ICs and securing a complete victory for our client including attorneys’ fees.
• Representing as lead counsel the author and owner of copyrights to a documentary and a bestselling book in the US District Court, Northern District of Illinois against claims of co-ownership asserted by a director of the documentary, securing complete vindication of the client following a jury trial, and successfully representing the book’s publisher in parallel proceedings.
• Acting as lead counsel for a Spanish satellite television broadcaster prosecuting claims before the US District Court, Central District of California against a global media company subsidiary for copyright infringement, violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and related claims arising from widespread piracy of the smartcard technology used in protecting encrypted digital TV broadcasts .
• Representing as lead counsel a leading video game developer and manufacturer in actions and proceedings before the US District Court, Northern District of California and the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board to prevent piracy of arcade consoles and protected images and trademarks, leading to, among other things, a consent judgment and permanent injunction.