Andrew H. Winetroub

What do you focus on?

I focus my practice on commercial, intellectual property, and other complex business disputes. I help guide clients through each phase of litigation, from claim assessment at the outset of a dispute all the way through trial. At every step, I work with clients to advance their business objectives, which have recently ranged from obtaining an early, favorable settlement in defending against a trademark infringement claim to prevailing at trial for a client that had been victimized by trade secret theft. Those experiences have shaped my ability to efficiently draft pleadings, engage in fact and expert discovery, and craft winning arguments for motions and briefs.

Before joining NP, I worked as a business litigator in a prominent San Francisco boutique law firm.

Prior to attending law school, I was on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, D.C.

What do you see on the horizon?

Intangible assets, including data, brand identity, and other intellectual property, will continue to increase in value and in importance to companies of all sizes. As a result, protection of those assets will become a topline priority for businesses. Comprehensive protection of such assets will require robust efforts to identify and, when necessary, enforce companies’ intellectual property rights.

Representative Experience

• Represent The Regents of the University of California in a groundbreaking patent enforcement campaign to protect its rights in a revolutionary new generation of light bulb technology known as filament LED that was invented by a Nobel laureate-led team at UC Santa Barbara. The campaign includes litigation before the U.S. International Trade Commission, the U.S. District Courts for the Central District of California and Eastern District of New York, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
• Member of a trial team that secured a $845M judgment for a client following a jury trial on trade secret, computer data access and fraud, breach of contract and fiduciary duty claims. The litigation involved leading players in the global semiconductor industry.
• Defended national mortgage company in trademark infringement action and secured favorable settlement.
• Represented leading Northern California health care provider in both antitrust and commercial litigation.
• Enforced contractual rights of venture capital firm in arbitration stemming from misrepresentations by portfolio company.

 Reported Cases

• Thompson v. Asimos, 6 Cal. App. 5th 970 (2016) (favorable decision on appeal of breach of contract and trademark infringement judgment).

 Publications

• “A Diamond Scheme Is Forever Lost: The Kimberley Process’s Deteriorating Tripartite Structure and Its Consequences for the Scheme’s Survival,” 20 Ind. J. Of Global Legal Stud. 1425 (2013).