James Pooley

James Pooley

Jim Pooley, distinguished member of the IP Hall of Fame, is a Senior Counsel in Orrick’s Silicon Valley office. He is a highly sought-after advisor and trial lawyer in courts and in private arbitration.

Jim combines over 35 years as a successful Silicon Valley trial lawyer with deep knowledge of patents and trade secrets, proven leadership of national organizations and five years as a diplomat and manager of the international patent system (PCT). With the analytical and communication skills of an attorney, executive, diplomat, teacher and published author, Jim provides a unique perspective and valuable resource for companies dealing with the challenges of deploying IP in complex global markets while facing unprecedented risks to information security.

Jim has been a senior partner at several large firms, where he handled hundreds of trade secret cases and was heavily involved in patent litigation. His successful jury defense of Adobe Systems as lead trial counsel in the country’s first major software patent infringement case tried to a jury was chosen by the National Law Journal as the only IP case among its Top Defense Verdicts of 1997. Adobe won with findings of non-infringement and invalidity of the patents asserted against Photoshop. In 2003, California Lawyer magazine named Jim Lawyer of the Year in recognition of a $90 million technology copyright settlement for ESS Technology of Fremont in litigation with MediaTek Inc. of Taiwan.

He has been a driving force behind the newly adopted Defend Trade Secrets Act. On December 2, 2015, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary invited Jim to testify as an expert on trade secret law and litigation as the committee weighed the proposed legislation, which created a federal civil claim for misappropriation of a company’s know-how. His testimony is available here. In 2009, the White House appointed Jim Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations, where he was responsible for the international patent system.

Jim is a prolific author of books and guides for judges, lawyers and business professionals about both trade secrets and patents. He was one of four co-authors of the initial “Patent Case ManagementJudicial Guide,” a comprehensive reference for both judges and lawyers, published by the Federal Judicial Center. Also for the Federal Judicial Center he conceived and scripted a video about patents that has been shown to juries across the country.

In 2015, Jim authored “Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage,” a clarion call for both lawyers and business executives about the increasing difficulty of handling corporate information in a hyperconnected world. In 1982, he published his first business book, “Trade Secrets.” In 1997, he introduced his legal treatise by the same name, which has become part of the IP canon and a vital desk reference for practitioners.

Jim taught for many years as an adjunct professor of law. His most recent law review article is “The Myth of the Trade Secret Troll: Why the Defend Trade Secrets Act Improves the Protection of Commercial Information” (23 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 1045, 2016). He has served as the president of the American Intellectual Property Association (AIPLA) and is the current chairman of the National Inventors Hall of Fame Selection Board.