David Elihu is a Partner in Quinn Emanuel’s Los Angeles office. David has experience with a broad range of complex commercial litigation and arbitration disputes in a variety of industries, and has an emphasis on high-stakes IP, trade secret, patent, antitrust, contract, employee mobility and theft, life sciences commercialization and licensing disputes, and other technical cases.
With a law degree from Harvard and undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees from MIT, David’s unique background enables him to quickly get up to speed and develop winning strategies for the most technical and complex cases, whether as plaintiff or defendant. He is a seasoned trial lawyer, having tried cases in multiple courts across the country and in arbitrations.
David was recently trial counsel and a key case architect helping Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and various of his companies obtain a more than $173 million drug development arbitration victory against Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. Sorrento filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within days of the arbitration judgment, eventually resulting in liquidation of the adversary. Sorrento had originally initiated the disputes by filing complaints asserting over $1 billion in damages.
David’s practice has become increasingly international over the last several years, with him helping clients in the United States and in Asia on disputes involving cross-border issues, including regarding theft of trade secrets and other intellectual property. He also represents a variety of startups and earlier stage companies on their most pressing matters against industry competitors.
David has helped clients on disputes involving EV batteries, chemicals, small molecules, biologics, oncology drugs, cosmetics, flat panel displays, dental products and services, wireless and cellular communications, Internet-based transactions, cybersecurity, computer architecture and other technologies.
He is currently lead counsel in multiple matters – on both the plaintiff and defense side – regarding the alleged theft of trade secrets and violations of invention disclosure and assignment agreements.
David is admitted to practice in California and New York.
- Access Bio
- Adcentrx Therapeutics
- Black Kite
- Brink Biologics
- Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL)
- Dentsu
- Dow Chemical
- IP Bridge
- ImmunityBio
- Merck
- Motorola
- NantWorks
- Olaplex
- SK Nexilis
- Symantec
- Time Warner Cable
- University of Southern California
- Wolverine World Wide
- Representing cybersecurity company in patent infringement and false advertising lawsuit.
- Representing multiple pharmaceutical companies in a series of litigations and arbitrations relating to the development and transfer of rights to oncology drug candidates, fusion protein technology, and monoclonal antibodies.
- Representing Pacific Dental Services in an antitrust action under the California Cartwright Act involving an alleged conspiracy in the dental industry.
- Representing Adcentrx Therapeutics against Abbvie in a trade secret dispute related to antibody-drug conjugate technology.
- Representing Nektar Therapeutics against Eli Lilly in a drug development dispute.
- Representing company in connection with false claims act investigation by the Department of Justice in connection with Medicare payments and provision of medical services.
- Represented IP Bridge in patent matters involving both telecommunications and semiconductor patents.
- Represented Olaplex in a $93 million trial victory against L’Oreal, the largest beauty company in the world, in a patent and trade secret dispute involving chemical hair treatment additives.
- Represented Fetch Media, Ltd., a member of the global media agency Dentsu’s family of companies, in a fraud and breach of contract action filed by Uber Technologies, Inc. in the Superior Court of California, relating to the presence of “ad fraud” in mobile advertising.
- Represented Time Warner Cable in patent dispute relating to DVR technology filed by TiVo in the Eastern District of Texas. The parties settled favorably on the eve of trial.
- Represented Motorola in multiple patent, breach of contract and antitrust actions against Apple and Microsoft in the Northern District of Illinois, the Western District of Wisconsin, the International Trade Commission, and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
- Represented a technology company against Facebook in an antitrust action involving tying and monopolization claims relating to the use of virtual currency and social game networks.
- Represented Furuno Electronics in a dispute before the International Trade Commission involving GPS technology.
- Represented life sciences company in a dispute related to natural killer cells.
- Represented Olaplex in breach of contract dispute after Quinn Emanuel was retained on the eve of trial.
- Represented Pendo in a patent lawsuit asserted by WalkMe relating to the generation of online tutorials. Achieved a complete victory, obtaining dismissal and invalidation of the asserted claim because it did not cover patentable subject matter.
- Represented various companies in investigations by the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.
- Patent Litigation
- Health Care Litigation
- Post-Grant Practice
- Antitrust & Competition
- Trade Secret Litigation
- Trademark, Trade Dress, Unfair Competition/False Advertising, and Publicity Rights Litigation
- Internet Litigation
- Investigations, Government Enforcement & White Collar Criminal Defense Practice
- Life Sciences Litigation
- Life Science: Pharmaceutical Antitrust Litigation
- Life Science: Pharmaceutical Patent Litigation
- Litigation Representing Plaintiffs
- Life Science: Biotechnology
- Harvard Law School
(J.D., 2009)- Harvard Journal on Legislation
- Co-President, 2008-2009
- Co-President, 2008-2009
- Harvard Journal on Legislation
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(M.Eng, Biomedical Engineering, 2006) - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(S.B., Chemical Engineering, 2005)
- The State Bar of California
- The State Bar of New York
- United States Court of Appeals:
- Federal Circuit
- Registered to Practice Before the United States Patent and Trademark Office
- Ropes & Gray LLP:
- Associate, 2010-2011