Stephen J. Akerley
Partner
Steve Akerley is a partner in O’Melveny's Silicon Valley Office and a member of the Intellectual Property and Technology Practice within the Firm's Adversarial Department. His practice focuses on high-stakes patent and trade secret cases as well as technology-related commercial disputes. He is routinely called upon to handle bet-the-company cases involving threats of injunctive relief and hundreds of millions of dollars in potential damages.
In 2008, the
Daily Journal named Steve one of the Top 50 IP Litigators in California. In July of 2002, the
National Law Journal named Steve to its “40 Under 40” list, recognizing him as “one of the most successful young litigators in America.” Steve has also been named in the annual list of
Northern California Super Lawyers for five consecutive years through 2008. And in December of 2005, Steve was featured on American Airlines’ in-flight radio program “America’s Best Lawyers” as well as SkyRadioNet.com, speaking on the issue of patent trolls and the continuing value of intellectual property.
Steve frequently comments on critical intellectual property-related issues and has been quoted in such publications as the
Financial Times, the
Los Angeles Times,
PC World,
Red Herring,
IP Law & Business, and
IP Law360, among others.
Illustrative Professional Experience
- Convolve v. Seagate Technology – Represented Seagate Technology against claims of patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation where the plaintiff has alleged $800 million in damages. This case involves the landmark Federal Circuit decision, In Re Seagate Technology, in which the court overturned 24 years of precedent in Seagate’s favor, preserving the attorney client privilege and abolishing the duty of care standard for defendants on notice of a patent claim.
- Recently won summary judgment of non-infringement for Creative Technology Ltd. in F&G Research v. Creative Technology Ltd.
- Global lead counsel for Intergraph Corporation against Hewlett-Packard in five patent infringement cases in California, Texas and Germany resulting in a $141 million settlement for Intergraph. These cases related to graphics processing software for use in CAD design, highly scalable microprocessor architectures and networking technology.
- Lead counsel for Hitachi Ltd. in patent cases regarding computer display technology.
- Intergraph v. Intel – Defended Intergraph Corporation with respect to claims by Intel that Intergraph had infringed seven patents. The case ultimately settled, with Intel paying Intergraph in excess of $350 million. Steve’s representation related to Intergraph’s high-end workstation graphics processing engines in response to Intel’s assertion of three patents related to graphics processing.
- NEC v. Hyundai Electronics – Lead defense counsel on three patent infringement claims. Prevailed in Markman hearings requiring the dismissal of claims.
Professional Activities
Admitted to Practice, U.S. District Court, Central, Northern, Eastern, and Southern Districts of California; U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal, Ninth, and Seventh Circuits