James G. Gatto
+1.703.770.7754

Pillsbury’s Intellectual Property practice advises clients on developing successful and comprehensive IP strategies by protecting, managing, asserting, defending and leveraging their IP assets. We field a team of IP attorneys, plus technical consultants and patent agents, in Northern Virginia, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, New York, San Diego, Sacramento, Tokyo, London and other offices around the country and abroad. Our IP team has a wide range of advanced scientific and technical degrees in areas including electrical and mechanical engineering, chemistry, biology, physics and a number of other technical disciplines.

We've been at the cutting edge of IP for over 100 years.

• We have appeared before many different jurisdictions both in the US and abroad. Within the US, in IP cases alone, we have appeared in 62 of the 95 District Courts and in 11 of the 13 US Courts of Appeals.
• Outside the US, we have appeared in various international tribunals including the International Chamber of Commerce and the World Intellectual Property Organization, to protect the IP rights of our clients.
• In the last 30 years, we filed for over 52,000 patents and our IP practice has over a century of history and experience.
• We filed for over 14,000 trademarks registrations—including 6,203 currently active, pending or registered US marks; and approximately 5,000 active pending or registered foreign marks (in about 145 different countries) distributed among over 1,400 clients.
• In a single year, we file an average of 2,500 patent applications and obtain an average of more than 1,200 patents for our clients.

Specific areas of interest include:

IP Litigation

• Patents
• Trade Secrets
• Trademarks and Trade Dress
• Copyrights
• Media
• ITC
• Technology Transfer and Licensing
• Antitrust
• Unfair Competition
  
  

IP Counseling

• IP Protection Strategies (e.g., patents vs. trade secrets)
• IP Audits and Due Diligence
• IP Portfolio Analysis
• Defensive IP Strategies
• Strategic Prosecution
• Applications Patent Interference Strategies and Practice
• Trade Secrets and Unfair Competition
• Product Search and Clearances
• Clearance Legal Opinions (e.g., patent invalidity and non-infringement opinions)
• Establishing Internal Control and Review Processes for IP Portfolio
• Management
• Copyright Law
• Licensing and Technology Transfer
• Technology Contracting and Counseling
• Trademarks and Branding

• #1 Regionally Ranked—IP Law—NoVA, The Best Lawyers in America, 2009
• #1 First Band Intellectual Property Group—NoVA, Chambers USA, 2008
• #26 Top Patent Firms, Intellectual Property Today, March 2009
• #18 Top Trademark Firms, Intellectual Property Today, May 2009
• #10 Top Trademark Firms in Washington, D.C., CTCorsearch, January 2008
• #9 Top 200 Trademark Law Firms, Trademark Insider Annual Report, 2008
• #11 Top 100 Trademark Firms (based on number of USPTO applications submitted during Q4 of 2008),  Trademark Insider, 2008
• #7 Who Protects IP America, IP Law & Business, November 2006
• #13 Top 25 Largest IP Practices in the U.S., Managing Intellectual Property, September 2006
• #14 Top 100 Most Frequently Hired Patent Litigation Practices, IP Law360, February 7, 2006

• 2009 Best Lawyers in America named two Pillsbury IP Partners (one with Special Honors for being ranked 25 years) and ranked Pillsbury #1 in the NoVA region. Approximately only 2.4 percent of practicing U.S. attorneys are selected for this list.
• In the 2008 Corporate Counsel survey of in-house counsel of the Fortune 500, Pillsbury was designated as a “Go-To Firm” for Intellectual Property. 
• 2008 PLC Which Lawyer? ranked our Los Angeles and San Francisco/Silicon Valley offices as well as one IP: Life Sciences partner as “Recommended.” 
• 2008 Chambers USA ranked our Northern Virginia office’s IP practice and five lawyers, including one “Senior Statesman.” One California partner was ranked for Life Sciences: IP/Patent Litigation. 
• June, 2007 Guide to the World’s Leading Patent Law Practitioners named a Pillsbury partner as one of the pre-eminent patent law practitioners. 
• In 2007, CTCorsearch data showed that a Pillsbury IP lawyer filed more trademark applications for clients than any other lawyer in Washington, DC. 
• 2006 IP Law & Business ’ annual survey of in-house counsel listed Pillsbury among the “Top IP Firms” corporate America calls on for IP help.