Joel focuses his litigation practice on the defense of patent infringement claims and challenges to patent validity as well as disputes over trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property. A registered patent attorney, he has deep experience in post-grant practice before the Patent Office, particularly contested review conducted in parallel with patent infringement litigation. Joel works closely with trial teams preparing patent portfolios for assertive litigation through rigorous “pre-examination” claim validity review and owner-directed re-examination and correction. He has also represented clients in copyright matters and related questions involving the rights surrounding various methods of copying, storing, reproducing and streaming digital media.
Joel litigates and advises candidates, election officials and members of the public on election law, including ballot access and integrity provisions of federal law. He has extensive experience in voter roll integrity and language minority ballot access provisions of federal election statutes. Joel has investigated and enforced statewide violations of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act, and implemented election day polling place observers in primary and general elections in numerous jurisdictions.
Partner, Friedland Cianfrani LLP
Mike has three decades of IP enforcement experience. He has represented clients in more than 270 intellectual property cases in state and federal courts in California and 23 other states and before the Trademark Trials and Appeals Board.
Mike’s practice includes patent, trademark, trade secret, and copyright cases. His cases have spanned a wide range of industries and technologies, including consumer products, semiconductors, tactical products, medical devices, computer software, apparel, restaurants, and financial services. He has represented brand-name companies including Oakley, Luxottica, Tesla, 5.11 Tactical, ITT, Makita, Pacific Life Insurance Company, Carl’s Jr., Microsemi, NASCAR, Daytona International Speedway, Game Show Network, Razor, Volcom, Specialized Bicycle, Mexicana Airlines, and SRS Labs, among others.
Mike was a partner at Knobbe Martens for more than two decades. At Knobbe, Mike served as co-chair of the Litigation Department. He had previously served as co-chair of the Trademark/Brand Protection group and the Consumer Products practice group.
World Trademark Review 1000 has several times named Mike a “Leading Trademark Lawyer." In the 2022 edition, WTR 1000 commended him for his “advanced state of preparedness,” and included a client remark that, “there’s nothing he hasn’t seen.”
In the 2021 edition, WTR described him as a “backbone of [his former firm's] litigation practice,” and noted his ability to litigate “cases associated with all categories of IP rights.”
In the 2020 edition, WTR described him as having been “on the cutting edge of enforcement for three decades.” In that edition, a client said he was “a sophisticated and thoughtful professional who understands how to get things done.”
In 2023, Legal 500 named Mike to its list of preeminent patent litigators. Thompson/Reuters has regularly named him a “Southern California Super Lawyer” in the category of IP litigation since 2004.
He frequently speaks on intellectual property litigation subjects, including to the AIPLA, OCBA, OCIPLA, LAIPLA, ABA, ACC, INTA, Harvard Law School Association, Harvard Business School Association, MIT Alumni Association, and the Federalist Society. Mike’s articles on IP subjects have been featured in publications including American Marketer, Luxury Roundtable, IP Watchdog, Law 360, IP 360, The Trademark Lawyer, The Los Angeles Daily Journal, The Recorder, ABA Landslide, Orange County Business Journal, Engage, and Stanford Technology Review.
Mike has taught as an adjunct professor at Whittier School of Law and served as a JAG with the California State Military Reserve. For 16 years, he served as a Reserve Deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, retiring as a Lieutenant.
Mike serves on the Harvard Law School Association’s Senior Advisory Committee, is a board member of the Federal Bar Association of Orange County, and the vice-chair of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society's Intellectual Property Practice Group. He is a former member of Law360's Intellectual Property Editorial Board, a former member and former Secretary of the Harvard Law School Association's Executive Committee, and a former president of the Harvard Law School Association of Orange County.
Criminal Justice Task Force Director, American Legislative Exchange Council
Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Reed Hopper is a Senior Attorney in PLF’s Environmental Law Practice Group. He oversees the Foundation’s Endangered Species Act Program that is designed to ensure that species protections are balanced with individual rights, the rule of law, and other social values. Reed also oversees PLF’s Clean Water Act Project that targets illegal federal regulation of local land and water use.
Reed has always had a strong patriotic spirit and a desire to serve his country. Before joining PLF in 1987, Reed served as an Environmental Protection Officer and Hearing Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard where he gained a love for the law. He also loves our constitutional way of life and cannot tolerate injustice. PLF affords him the opportunity to rectify unjust actions perpetrated by overreaching government. He enjoys getting up each morning to fight for a just cause.
Reed has litigated and won precedent-setting environmental and land use cases at all levels of the state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He has published numerous articles and testified before Congress as an expert witness.
Reed graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a Bachelors Degree in German and major work in biochemistry. He also did graduate business studies at California State University and Tulane University and earned his Juris Doctor Degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.
Joel focuses his litigation practice on the defense of patent infringement claims and challenges to patent validity as well as disputes over trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property. A registered patent attorney, he has deep experience in post-grant practice before the Patent Office, particularly contested review conducted in parallel with patent infringement litigation. Joel works closely with trial teams preparing patent portfolios for assertive litigation through rigorous “pre-examination” claim validity review and owner-directed re-examination and correction. He has also represented clients in copyright matters and related questions involving the rights surrounding various methods of copying, storing, reproducing and streaming digital media.
Joel litigates and advises candidates, election officials and members of the public on election law, including ballot access and integrity provisions of federal law. He has extensive experience in voter roll integrity and language minority ballot access provisions of federal election statutes. Joel has investigated and enforced statewide violations of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act, and implemented election day polling place observers in primary and general elections in numerous jurisdictions.
Partner, Friedland Cianfrani LLP
Mike has three decades of IP enforcement experience. He has represented clients in more than 270 intellectual property cases in state and federal courts in California and 23 other states and before the Trademark Trials and Appeals Board.
Mike’s practice includes patent, trademark, trade secret, and copyright cases. His cases have spanned a wide range of industries and technologies, including consumer products, semiconductors, tactical products, medical devices, computer software, apparel, restaurants, and financial services. He has represented brand-name companies including Oakley, Luxottica, Tesla, 5.11 Tactical, ITT, Makita, Pacific Life Insurance Company, Carl’s Jr., Microsemi, NASCAR, Daytona International Speedway, Game Show Network, Razor, Volcom, Specialized Bicycle, Mexicana Airlines, and SRS Labs, among others.
Mike was a partner at Knobbe Martens for more than two decades. At Knobbe, Mike served as co-chair of the Litigation Department. He had previously served as co-chair of the Trademark/Brand Protection group and the Consumer Products practice group.
World Trademark Review 1000 has several times named Mike a “Leading Trademark Lawyer." In the 2022 edition, WTR 1000 commended him for his “advanced state of preparedness,” and included a client remark that, “there’s nothing he hasn’t seen.”
In the 2021 edition, WTR described him as a “backbone of [his former firm's] litigation practice,” and noted his ability to litigate “cases associated with all categories of IP rights.”
In the 2020 edition, WTR described him as having been “on the cutting edge of enforcement for three decades.” In that edition, a client said he was “a sophisticated and thoughtful professional who understands how to get things done.”
In 2023, Legal 500 named Mike to its list of preeminent patent litigators. Thompson/Reuters has regularly named him a “Southern California Super Lawyer” in the category of IP litigation since 2004.
He frequently speaks on intellectual property litigation subjects, including to the AIPLA, OCBA, OCIPLA, LAIPLA, ABA, ACC, INTA, Harvard Law School Association, Harvard Business School Association, MIT Alumni Association, and the Federalist Society. Mike’s articles on IP subjects have been featured in publications including American Marketer, Luxury Roundtable, IP Watchdog, Law 360, IP 360, The Trademark Lawyer, The Los Angeles Daily Journal, The Recorder, ABA Landslide, Orange County Business Journal, Engage, and Stanford Technology Review.
Mike has taught as an adjunct professor at Whittier School of Law and served as a JAG with the California State Military Reserve. For 16 years, he served as a Reserve Deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, retiring as a Lieutenant.
Mike serves on the Harvard Law School Association’s Senior Advisory Committee, is a board member of the Federal Bar Association of Orange County, and the vice-chair of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society's Intellectual Property Practice Group. He is a former member of Law360's Intellectual Property Editorial Board, a former member and former Secretary of the Harvard Law School Association's Executive Committee, and a former president of the Harvard Law School Association of Orange County.
Of Counsel, Sedgwick LLP
David Dorsen is Of Counsel with Sedgwick, LLP. He served as an Assistant US Attorney in New York under Robert M. Morgenthau, and later as Assistant Chief Counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee under Senator Sam Ervin. He has taught at Duke University, North Carolina, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC, and George Washington University Law School, Washington DC. His book, Henry Friendly, Greatest Judge of his Era (with Richard A. Posner, 2012), won the Green Bag Award for Exemplary Legal Writing.
Adjunct Professor, George Washington University Law School
Warren Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
Michael D. Ramsey is Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he teaches and writes in the areas of Constitutional Law, Foreign Relations Law and International Law. He is the author of The Constitution’s Text in Foreign Affairs (Harvard University Press), co-editor of International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change (Cambridge University Press), and co-author of two casebooks, Transnational Law and Practice (2d ed., Aspen) and International Business Transactions: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook (14th ed., West). His scholarly articles have appeared in publications such as the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal and the American Journal of International Law. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Dartmouth College and his J.D. summa cum laude from Stanford Law School. Prior to teaching, he served as a judicial clerk for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court, and practiced law with the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he specialized in international finance and investment. He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of California, San Diego, in the Department of Political Science and at the University of Paris – Sorbonne, in the Department of Comparative Law.
Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Reed Hopper is a Senior Attorney in PLF’s Environmental Law Practice Group. He oversees the Foundation’s Endangered Species Act Program that is designed to ensure that species protections are balanced with individual rights, the rule of law, and other social values. Reed also oversees PLF’s Clean Water Act Project that targets illegal federal regulation of local land and water use.
Reed has always had a strong patriotic spirit and a desire to serve his country. Before joining PLF in 1987, Reed served as an Environmental Protection Officer and Hearing Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard where he gained a love for the law. He also loves our constitutional way of life and cannot tolerate injustice. PLF affords him the opportunity to rectify unjust actions perpetrated by overreaching government. He enjoys getting up each morning to fight for a just cause.
Reed has litigated and won precedent-setting environmental and land use cases at all levels of the state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He has published numerous articles and testified before Congress as an expert witness.
Reed graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a Bachelors Degree in German and major work in biochemistry. He also did graduate business studies at California State University and Tulane University and earned his Juris Doctor Degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.
Patent Venue: Fallout from TC Heartland v. Kraft Food
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On May 22, 2017, in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Food Group Brands LLC, the...
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On October 5, 2017, Prof. Eugene Kontorovich and Prof. Ilya Somin joined the Federalist Society...
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