Professional Experience
Mr. Katz, who heads the litigation group in the Palo Alto office, specializes in complex commercial dispute resolution with an emphasis on intellectual property, antitrust and technology matters. During his career, he has been involved in high-profile and novel cases for major clients both internationally and in Northern California. For example, in 2012 he helped the San Francisco SPCA achieve a significant settlement in a will contest, in 2011 he argued a trademark appeal before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of football great Jim Brown [Click here to read article], recently defeated a motion for a temporary restraining order in case involving high-profile business colleagues [Click here to read article], recently won a jury verdict of almost a million dollars from Caltrans [Click here to read article], and won a jury verdict of $28,100,000 on behalf of a class of 2062 retired National Football League players against their union [Click here to read article].
Aside from private practice, Mr. Katz’s experience includes the position of Deputy Director of the Law of the Sea Negotiations at the U.S. State Department, as well as the position of attorney at the Foreign Commerce Section of the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, where he was recipient of the Attorney General’s Outstanding Performance Award. In addition, he was an Overseas Fellow of the International Legal Center in Bandung, Indonesia, where he assisted the Minister of Justice on law reform projects. Mr. Katz currently teaches a course in trial advocacy at Stanford University Law School and a course in sports law at Santa Clara University Law School.
Representative Recent Litigation
In 2011 Mr. Katz argued an appeal before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for football great, Jim Brown, regarding the use of Mr. Brown's image by Electronic Arts in the Madden football videogames. That matter is under submission.
In 2010 Mr. Katz defeated an application for a temporary restraining order that would have prevented his CEO client from terminating a co-owner as CFO.
In 2009 Mr. Katz was won a jury verdict of almost $1,000,000 for a multi-billion dollar operator of truck stops against Caltrans in a case about an aborted land deal.
In 2008 Mr. Katz won a $28,100,000 jury verdict for a class of 2062 retired NFL players suing their union.
In 2007 Mr. Katz won an anti-SLAPP motion for a venture capital client, which stopped his adversary’s case at the outset and provided for attorneys’ fees for Mr. Katz’s client.
Mr. Katz won a jury verdict in 2006 in a patent infringement case in Marshall, Texas, involving remote email as reported in the Wall Street Journal on May 4, 2006 on page B4.
Mr. Katz obtained an injunction in 2006 in the Federal Court in the Southern District of New York against a company seeking to circumvent a device protecting electronically stored data.
Mr. Katz won a jury verdict in 2006 in the Federal Court in the Northern District of California in a contract/copyright infringement case involving two electronic search companies.
Mr. Katz obtained an injunction in 2004 in the Federal Court in the Southern District of New York preventing the company formerly known as 321 Studios from selling DVDXCopy software.
Education
Harvard Law School, J.D., 1972.
Oxford University, M.A., 1969.
Rhodes Scholarship.
New York University, B.A., summa cum laude, 1967.
Honorary Woodrow Wilson Fellow.
Memberships & Activities
Admitted to practice in California.
Member, the State Bar of California.
Overseer, New York University College of Arts and Science.
Publications
"Courts, Sports And Videogames: What's In A Game?" Law 360, January 4, 2012.
“Patent Trolls: A Selective Etymology,” IP Law 360, March 21, 2008.
“Patents Give the DMCA Needed Teeth: Salvaging Copy Protection in the Post-Grokster Era,” Journal of Internet Law, September 2004.
“Back to the Future: Patent Parallels Between SARS, HIV/AIDS,” BNA Pharmaceutical Law & Industry Report, July 11, 2003.
“Whither the DMCA? A Tale of Two Cases,” Journal of Internet Law, May 2003.
“Internet Speech and the Limits of Jurisdiction,” The American Society of International Law, Proceedings of the 97th Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, April 2-5, 2003.
“Why Is One Patent Court Deciding Antitrust Law for the Whole Country?” Antitrust Law Journal, February 2002.
“National Boundaries in Cyberspace? Yahoo! v. LICRA,” Journal of Internet Law, September 2001
“It Pays to Pay Attention to Intellectual Property,” Intellectual Property Forum, March 2001.
“Intellectual Property vs. Antitrust: A False Dilemma,” The Computer Lawyer, November 1998.
“Uncertainty Reigns in Software Cases,” The National Law Journal, May 12, 1997.
“WIPO Treaties: Euphoria Should Wait,” The Computer Lawyer, April 1997.
“A Post-Kodak Working Guide to Market Definition,” Antitrust, Spring 1997; The Antitrust Counsel, November 15, 1997.
“New Case Complicates Proof of Infringement by Program Execution,” The Computer Lawyer, June 1996.
“Recent Cases Reveal Gaps in Draft Antitrust/IP Guidelines,” The Computer Lawyer, November 1994.
“Fair Use of Operating System Software: Square Pegs In Round Holes?” The Computer Lawyer, May 1994.
“ADR Abroad,” The Recorder, April 28, 1994.
“Water Marketing/Transfers and the Antitrust Laws,” California Water Law & Policy Reporter, October 1993.
“MAI v. Peak: An Unprecedented Opinion with Sparse Analysis,” The Computer Lawyer, May 1993.
“The Benefits and Burdens of Kodak from a Litigant’s Perspective,” Antitrust, Fall/Winter 1992.
“Is Antitrust Law Coming Alive?” The California Lawyer, December 1992 (interview of William Baxter of Stanford Law School and former Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division).
“A Method for Evaluating the Deep Seabed Mining Provisions of the Law of the Sea Treaty,” 7 Yale Journal of World Public Order 114, 1980.
“Financial Arrangements for Seabed Mining Companies: An NIEO Case Study,” 13 Journal of World Trade Law 209, 1979.
Survey of Indonesian Economic Law:
Co-Author, “Law Reform in Post-Sukarno Indonesia,” 10 The International Lawyer 335, 1976.
Co-Author, Labor Law (Bandung: Institute of Legal Research, 1974)
Co-Author, Mining Law (Bandung: Institute of Legal Research, 1974).
Advisor, Business Law (Bandung: Institute of Legal Research, 1973).
Advisor, Taxation (Bandung: Institute of Legal Research, 1973).