Brett Williamson

Partner

Brett Williamson is the Managing Partner of O’Melveny’s Newport Beach office and a member of the Intellectual Property and Technology Practice within the Firm's Adversarial Department.  He focuses on representing technology companies in intellectual property matters, with an emphasis on patent infringement, technology trade secrets, and antitrust litigation.  He was named a “Super Lawyer” in Intellectual Property Litigation for 2007 and 2008 in a survey conducted by Law & Politics Media Inc. and published in Los Angeles Magazine and described as a “notable trade secret lawyer” by Legal 500. 

Illustrative Professional Experience

Brett has substantial experience prosecuting and defending patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition and antitrust cases in the computer hardware and software, biotechnology, telecommunications, medical device, and semiconductor industries, including recent engagements involving technologies as diverse as artificial respirators, cardioplegic pharmaceuticals, optoelectronic transceivers, surface emitting lasers, wireless networking methods, gaming machines and systems, biometric sensors, thermal printers, sports trading cards and digital rights management software.

Recent Engagements

• Brett is lead patent litigation counsel for a global leader in the design, manufacture, and sale of computerized gaming machines and systems products.  When the client's most popular slot machine was threatened by an infringing machine produced by a rival company, the client turned to Brett to enforce the patents that protect the product's core technology.  Pretrial proceedings are drawing to a close with trial set for fall 2008.  In the meantime, the client has relied on Brett to handle other major cases, including the prosecution of litigation involving the company's pioneering casino-management-systems technology and the defense of a patent infringement claim by a competitor, in which Brett prevailed on a motion for summary judgment resulting in a full dismissal in favor of the client.
• Brett was hired to represent Central Admixture Pharmacy Services, Inc. and an inventor to enforce their rights in a patent infringement case brought against an alleged infringer in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.  The case involved a patent for intravenous pharmaceuticals used during open heart surgery to minimize heart muscle damage caused by the interruption of blood flow.  In trial, Brett successfully proved that the defendant had not only infringed his client's patents, but had willfully infringed.  Brett also successfully defeated counterclaims alleging invalidity, false advertising under the Lanham Act, false marking under the Patent Act, and Walker Process monopolization under Section 2 of the Sherman Act.  The Court entered a permanent injunction, estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars in recovered sales revenue. 
• Brett represents FutureLogic, Inc., a leader in thermal printer design and technology, providing both standard and customized print solutions for a variety of printing applications such as gaming vouchers, gas pump receipt printers, medical devices, point-of-sale coupons, and labels for assembly-line products.  Brett represents the company in a number of matters, including defending a patent infringement and antitrust dispute with one of FutureLogic’s direct competitors in the gaming market, TransAct.  Brett successfully defeated a motion for a preliminary injunction in the TransAct matter in July 2007 and, after defeating a renewed request for a preliminary injunction in March 2008, the case settled, with FutureLogic obtaining a worldwide, perpetual license to the patents at issue and all related applications, patents and foreign counterparts.

Professional Activities

Admitted to Practice,  U.S. District Court, Northern, Eastern, Central, and Southern Districts of California, and the District of Colorado; U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal and Ninth Circuits; U.S. Supreme Court
Member,  American Bar Association; Intellectual Property Section, State Bar of California; American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA); Orange County Bar Association; Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL), Orange County Chapter
Board of Directors,  Public Law Center of Orange County; University of California, Irvine — Center for the Study of Democracy
Author,  "Post-Seagate:  Advice of Counsel in Patent Defense," Intellectual Property Litigation (Fall 2008)(co-author); "Struggle for Ownership," The Recorder (April 11, 2007)(discussing KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc. case); "Remedying Injury to Goodwill and Reputation:  Beacon Mutual and 'Public Confusion' Under the Lanham Act," Intellectual Property Litigation (American Bar Association, Winter 2005);  "Securities Class Actions Vary by Type of Defendant:  Recent Cases Against Emerging Companies Often Differ From Those Against Older Ones," The National Law Journal (April 9, 2001)(co-author)