John (Jay) Neukom is a first-chair trial lawyer who represents publicly-traded and large private companies in high-stakes courtroom disputes against direct competitors. Mr. Neukom is also Co-Chair of the firm’s Technology Group. He has served as lead counsel in over 100 disputes in federal and state courtrooms in California, New York, Delaware, Washington D.C., Texas and Florida—plus Arizona, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Utah—as well as before the U.S. International Trade Commission, the U.S. Patent Trial & Appeal Board, and arbitrations before AAA, JAMS, FINRA, ICC and BCICAC.
Mr. Neukom has taken to trial and arbitration—at the podium—19 cases to verdict or award. Through judgment and settlement, Mr. Neukom has defeated over $3 billion in claims against his clients, and recovered over $400 million in cash payments for them. In addition to monetary relief, Mr. Neukom has secured contract reformation, intellectual property assignments and stipulated injunctions on behalf of his clients.
In addition to his trial practice, Mr. Neukom has repeatedly and successfully argued appeals—to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the California Courts of Appeal.
Mr. Neukom has served as lead counsel in utility patent, design patent, trade secret misappropriation, copyright, antitrust, trademark, trade dress, false advertising, fraud and contract breach cases. Because Mr. Neukom’s cases usually involve disputes between competitors over the design, functionality and ownership of disputed technologies, he has litigated claims over semiconductor design (including field programmable gate arrays, power management, embedded DRAM, radio-frequency switches, microelectromechanical systems and LEDs), semiconductor fabrication, semiconductor testing, network security, routers and switches (hardware and management software), smartphone (hardware and user interface software), data compression, data center design, wireless network configuration, solar cell, rich-thin Internet, LiDAR, self-driving automobile, USB connectivity, photogrammetry, conjugate vaccine, immunotherapy, oil extraction, cosmetic recipe formulation and roofing underlayment technologies. Likewise, Mr. Neukom has litigated disputes over the alleged theft of source code for the implementation of network management, Internet application, point-of-sale, user interface, financial transaction clearing and renewable-energy management functionality.
In addition to his high-technology docket, Mr. Neukom has repeatedly represented storied American design houses in asserting claims against competitors to protect their intellectual property in their ornamental designs, including for the ultra-luxury jewelry market.
Mr. Neukom’s clients have included Advantest, Albertson’s, AT&T, The Bank of New York, Cadence, Capital One, Cisco, Coty, David Yurman, Enel, Fortinet, GAF Materials, Google, Hanwha, HTC, Intel, Kia, Microchip, ON Semi, the PGA Tour, Philips, Qorvo, Rothy’s, ServiceNow, Snap, Spirit Airlines, Standard Industries, StoneX, Telegram, Vaxcyte, Waymo, W.R. Grace, Yardi and Zenlayer.
Repeatedly, Mr. Neukom has been recognized in the press and by industry watchers as a leading trial lawyer for competitor litigation over disputed technology—including by The Daily Journal, The Recorder and Law360, among others.
In addition to his law practice, Mr. Neukom serves on the board of directors for Children’s Rights, a non-profit based in New York that uses impact litigation to advocate for the rights of foster children, and a private foundation that makes distributions to further health, educational and environmental causes. Previously, Mr. Neukom served on the board of trustees for the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington.
Mr. Neukom received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as executive editor of the Stanford Law Review; his M.A. from Yale University; and his B.A. from Dartmouth College. Before entering private practice, Mr. Neukom clerked for the Hon. Jose A. Cabranes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.