Tanya I. Wei's practice focuses on intellectual property protection, litigation, and transactions. She has represented individuals and corporations in various actions involving patent, trademark, and copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition claims, and breach of contract disputes in both state and federal courts. She has also drafted and negotiated licensing, development, non-disclosure, employee non-competition, and settlement agreements for a wide variety of clients from many industries including video game developers, manufacturers, designers, as well as technology and biotechnology companies.

Tanya has both trial and appellate level experience. She has engaged in and directed all phases of discovery, appeared at numerous hearings, conducted and defended depositions, successfully argued motions in court, retained and worked with experts, participated in settlement conferences, drafted pre-trial filings, and served on a trial team.

Tanya graduated from The Johns Hopkins University in 1996 with degrees in English and Biology. She subsequently earned a Masters degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Tufts University in 1999. In 2004, she graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law where she received the Law Faculty Scholarship Award and served as a Research Editor for the Santa Clara Law Review.

Prior to joining this firm, Tanya worked on a variety of complex civil litigation matters as an Associate in the San Francisco office of Selman Breitman for two years. She also worked on patent infringement matters involving mechanical patents and litigated trademark and business disputes at the Los Angeles and San Francisco offices of Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith for a year. Additionally, she worked as a Law Clerk on patent infringement actions involving computer disk drives and semiconductor chips at the Silicon Valley office of McDermott, Will & Emery for two years.

Prior to law school, Tanya worked as a Technology Transfer & Licensing Associate for Harvard University's Center for Blood Research where she drafted and negotiated process development contracts, including technology transfer, confidentiality, non-disclosure, licensing, master, and consulting agreements involving novel biotechnology. She also served as the editor of two Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism articles.

Notable Engagements

Specific cases, client references, and names are available upon request.

• Represented plaintiff equipment manufacturer in a patent infringement action involving high performance, industrial machinery.


• Defended major semiconductor chip company in a patent infringement action involving smart networking products, semiconductor chip packaging structures, and digital video encoding and decoding techniques. The jury returned a verdict of non-infringement. Case was subsequently settled on terms favorable to client prior to appeal.


• Represented a major semiconductor corporation in a patent infringement lawsuit involving broadband communications and high performance computer graphics technologies. Case settled on terms favorable to client after Markman hearing.


• Defended a leading, international air bed design corporation in a patent and trademark infringement action involving inflatable support systems for air mattresses.


• Defended a major manufacturer of disk drives against claims of patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation of computer disk drive technology.


• Represented a top-selling video game developer in a breach of contract and unfair competition lawsuit involving licensing, trade secret, and copyright issues.


• Represented an entertainment industry company in trademark and copyright matters pertaining to issues of the right of publicity and privacy.


• Defended an importer and distributor corporation against unfair competition and trade secret misappropriation claims involving a joint venture.


• Drafted contracts involving intellectual property rights for clients, including publication and royalty agreements, licenses and cross-licenses, employee non-competition and non-disclosure contracts, intellectual property transfer agreements, and development agreements.


• Prepared opinion letters to clients regarding trademark infringement.

Publications

• Author, Comment, Patenting Genomic Technology - 2001 Utility Examination Guidelines: An Incomplete Remedy In Need of Prompt Reform, 44 SANTA CLARA L. REV. 307 (July 2003)

Education

• Santa Clara University School of Law, Juris Doctor (2004)
• Research Editor, Santa Clara Law Review
• Recipient, Law Faculty Scholarship Award
• Tufts University, Masters in Epidemiology and Biostatistics (1999)
• Johns Hopkins University, Bachelor of Arts in English and Biology (1996)

Admitted to Practice

• California State Courts (2005)
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of California

Professional Affiliations and Activities

• State Bar of California
• Phi Delta Phi Legal Honors Fraternity