IP, technology and business law for companies that build things — from chips to agents.
Patent prosecution and portfolio strategy, technology transactions, and the business counsel a technology company needs along the way. One attorney, who spent eleven years at Intel bringing the 486 and Pentium processors into production before he began practicing law.
What I do
The work falls into four areas. Most clients need more than one of them, often in the same month.
- Patents
- Drafting and prosecuting applications in the United States and abroad, with the technical depth to handle hardware, firmware and software in the same specification.
- Semiconductor, chip, FPGA and embedded systems
- Machine learning, AI systems and software
- Portfolio planning and competitive landscape
- Freedom-to-operate and validity opinions
- Technology transactions
- Agreements that put IP to work and keep ownership clear as products move from concept to market.
- Licenses, assignments and joint development agreements
- Development, supply and services agreements
- Open-source and AI model licensing terms
- IP diligence for financings and acquisitions
- Business law for technology companies
- Day-to-day counsel for founders and engineering-led companies, so legal questions get answered before they become problems.
- Commercial contracts and terms of service
- Founder, contractor and advisor IP arrangements
- Confidentiality and trade-secret programs
- Outside general counsel on an as-needed basis
- Disputes
- Pre-suit analysis, demand letters, licensing negotiations and post-grant proceedings, and coordination with litigation counsel when a matter goes to court.
- Infringement and invalidity analysis
- Inter partes review and ex parte reexamination
- Settlement and license negotiation
- Conference facilities for depositions, mediations and remote hearings
- EducationBS, Electrical Engineering, Columbia Engineering
JD, Santa Clara University School of Law
MBA, Columbia Business School and London Business School - AdmittedState Bar of California
United States Patent and Trademark Office
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit - MeetingsBy Zoom anywhere in California. In person by arrangement.
Alex Witkowski
Alex is a patent attorney who was an engineer first. He joined Intel in 1988 and spent six years in product development on the Intel386, 486 and Pentium processors — silicon debug, design and manufacturability verification, wafer-sort and package test — and was the first person to operate the original Pentium on first silicon. Intel then sponsored him through law school, and for five years he drafted and prosecuted the company's patents in microprocessor architecture, computer hardware and software, and semiconductor process technology.
He has run his own practice since 2008, prosecuting hardware, software and business-method applications and advising startups and established companies on IP strategy and the business decisions around it. A stint as a patent examiner at the USPTO gives him a working sense of how an application is read on the other side of the desk. Two MBAs, from Columbia and London Business School, inform the business side of the counsel.
The result is advice grounded in how the technology works and what the company is trying to do with it — not only in how an invention is described in a specification.
Selected patents
Drafted and prosecuted for clients, and earlier for Intel. A sample of a longer list.
- US 8,417,698 Search based on social graphs and affinity groups
- US 8,296,812 Streaming video using erasure encoding
- US 8,135,061 Variable bit rate encoding
- US 8,498,808 Hybrid routing using breadcrumb paths
- US 7,725,343 Activity-based cost modeling
- US 5,898,610 Bit cell ground choking for improved memory write margin
- US 6,032,278 Method and apparatus for performing scan testing
- US 5,862,067 High numerical accuracy with MMX instructions
- US 5,840,448 Phase shifting mask
Get in touch
A first conversation is confidential and without obligation. Say what you are building and what you need; a reply usually comes the same business day.
Clients across California work with the firm by Zoom: in the Bay Area, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco and Alameda counties; in Southern California, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.
alex@witkowskilaw.com650-488-4500 (voice and fax)
Witkowski Law
4546 El Camino Real B10 # 1020
Los Altos, CA 94022
Most meetings are held by Zoom: private, efficient, and no commute. A first meeting can be in person by arrangement.
Paying a trust deposit? Please use the payment link in your trust request.
New clients: use the intake button — it opens Clio, the firm's secure intake system, and takes about five minutes. Or email alex@witkowskilaw.com. Please do not include confidential technical details in a first message; an engagement begins only after a conflict check and a signed engagement letter.