Christopher Cox is a Litigation partner in Weil’s Silicon Valley office, where he leads the firm’s California complex commercial litigation practice. Mr. Cox has more than 20 years of experience litigating matters in state and federal courts in California and throughout the country, as well as in the binding arbitration forum. He also counsels both domestic and international clients on a wide variety of intellectual property, employment, and other litigation matters.
Mr. Cox has significant experience managing multi-jurisdictional disputes, multi-district litigations, class actions, adversary proceedings in the bankruptcy court, internal investigations and litigations involving intellectual property, business torts, contracts, fiduciary duty, employee mobility, non-competes, and unfair competition—including in trial and on appeal. His recent and ongoing experience illustrates this breadth of practice, and includes representing: Lehman Brothers Holdings in its bankruptcy and related litigation proceedings; Panasonic, as plaintiff, in a shareholder derivative suit relating to the company’s minority stake in a joint venture to manufacture medical devices; and Scott Kay, Inc. in copyright and trademark litigation brought by a competitor regarding jewelry designs.
A significant part of Mr. Cox’s practice focuses on trade secret and patent litigation. His experience in these areas covers the full spectrum of technologies, including flash memory, optoelectronics, optical discs, computer storage and processing, electronic design automation, internet communications, telecommunications hardware and software, circuit simulation, software encryption, medical devices and other products. In Lexar Media v. Toshiba, a case involving claims of trade secret misappropriation, breach of fiduciary duty and unfair business practices, the $465.4 million jury verdict secured in 2005 was the largest intellectual property award in the history of the California Superior Court for the County of Santa Clara and the third largest ever in a U.S. intellectual property trial.
Mr. Cox also has extensive experience with the intersection of trade secret and employee mobility issues, including those arising under California Business and Professions Code 16600. Mr. Cox also regularly counsels clients on protecting confidential information and conducting internal investigations to manage and protect intellectual property. He has been recognized as a recommended lawyer by Legal 500 US, which notes his “thought leadership on the trade secrets issues arising out of employee mobility.”
Mr. Cox speaks regularly on a variety of legal topics, including crisis management, litigation and trial strategy, and e-discovery. He also teaches a course on professionalism and persuasive writing to all incoming Weil associates, and advises in-house counsel on litigation management, internal investigations, witness preparation, discovery and other issues.