Lance Yang is a partner in Quinn Emanuel’s Los Angeles and Seattle offices. Lance is a trial lawyer with extensive experience in litigating patents, copyrights and other complex intellectual property in “bet the company” cases. He has represented both plaintiffs and defendants and has advised companies on a broad spectrum of technologies. Lance has extensive experience in software and hardware technologies in particular. He has litigated cases in both state and federal courts, including the ITC, and has advised on patent licensing as well. Super Lawyers Magazine named Lance a “Rising Star in Intellectual Property Litigation” in 2014 and a “Southern California Rising Star” in 2015 and 2016.
Before attending the University of Pennsylvania Law School, he spent five years at Maxim Integrated Products as an engineer and received a Masters Degree from Stanford University, specializing in RF chip design and wireless communications. He also holds an LL.M. from Tsinghua University and is admitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
- Broadcom
- Cisco
- Epson
- HTC
- MediaTek
- NVIDIA
- Qualcomm
- Samsung
- Symantec
- STMicroelectronics
- ViaSat
- Represented plaintiff ViaSat against defendants Space Systems/Loral (“SS/L”) and Loral Space & Communications in a complex patent and breach of contract lawsuit in the Southern District of California involving high-speed satellite technology capable of providing broadband services to consumers and businesses. ViaSat asserted that its patented and proprietary satellite technology was misappropriated by defendants to build a competing satellite, in violation of ViaSat’s patent rights and confidentiality agreements. After a three-week jury trial, obtained a jury verdict of $283 million for ViaSat. Jury found that SS/L infringed all asserted patent claims and breached its contractual obligations to ViaSat. (http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Apr/24/ViaSat-Space-Systems-Loral-lawsuit-satellite/)
- Represented respondents Broadcom, NVIDIA, STMicroelectronics, MediaTek, Freescale, Cisco, and Motorola in an ITC investigation (337-TA-753) initiated by Rambus involving six patents covering memory controller and chip-to-chip interface technologies. Obtained a complete defense victory. The ITC Commission issued a final determination of no violation for all patents based on invalidity and unenforceability due to willful spoliation of evidence. Tens of billions of dollars in product sales were at risk and ultimately protected as a result of this victory. (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9229679/Rambus_loses_US_ITC_case_plans_appeal)
- Represented defendant Samsung Electronics and third party Google in the second “smartphone” patent case brought by Apple in the Northern District of California. Representation focused on Apple patents on alleged universal search, for which Apple did not recover, including Apple dropping one patent before trial (after it had previously obtained a preliminary injunction on the same patent) and a jury verdict of non-infringement for the other. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/usanow/2014/05/02/apple-samsung-patent-trial-verdict-federal-jury/8150593/)
- Represented respondent HTC in an ITC investigation (337-TA-710) initiated by Apple involving ten patents covering object-oriented operating systems, real-time processing, user interface and networking technologies. Five patents were dismissed prior to trial, and one additional patent was dismissed during trial. All patent claims defended by the firm were determined to be not infringed and invalid.
- Represented plaintiff STMicroelectronics against its competitor, InvenSense, in multiple patent lawsuits at the ITC, the Northern District of California and the Eastern District of Texas. Asserted twelve different patents against InvenSense, and defended against five InvenSense patents, related to various design and manufacturing technologies for MEMS-based gyroscopes and accelerometers used in smartphones, tablets and other devices. After obtaining claim construction victories at the ITC, and after securing a transfer of the ED Texas case brought by InvenSense to the ND California, the litigation settled after one day of trial at the ITC, resulting in a successful patent license royalty agreement for STMicroelectronics.
- Represented respondent HTC in an ITC investigation (337-TA-797) initiated by Apple involving five patents covering multi-finger gestures, sensor-based rotation of user interface, and touch panel sensor design. Shortly before the initial determination was due, Apple settled with HTC, resulting in a 10-year cross license with HTC reporting no material financial impact on its business. This was the first major settlement involving Apple’s claims against Android-based smartphone and tablet manufacturers.
- Represented respondent MediaTek in an ITC investigation (337-TA-786) initiated by Freescale involving multiple patents asserted against DTV and DSP products. Obtained final determination of no violation for all patent claims defended at trial.
- University of Pennsylvania Law School
(J.D., 2008) - Tsinghua University
(L.L.M., 2010) - Stanford University
(M.S., Electrical Engineering, 2005) - University of California, San Diego
(B.S., Electrical Engineering, 2000)- Regent Scholar
- National Merit Scholar
- The State Bar of California
- Not admitted to the State Bar of Washington (practicing under the direct supervision of members of the Washington Bar)
- United States District Court:
- Northern District of California
- Central District of California
- Eastern District of Texas
- Registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office
- Mandarin
- Maxim Integrated Products:
- Applications Engineer, Senior Member, 2000-2005
- Selected as a SuperLawyer Rising Star (2014-2018)
- The Next Step in the Evolution of Pressure Sensing, Electronic Engineering & Product World (2002).
- Network Linearizes DC/DC Converter’s Current-Limit Characteristics, EDN (2005).
- Breaking Down China’s Standardization Efforts, Tsinghua University (2010).
- Participant in first US IP Mock Trial to SASAC in Beijing, China (2011).
- Moderator at UCLA Anderson’s December 2011 Quarterly Economic Forecast Conference: The California-China Relationship: Partners or Competitors? in Los Angeles, CA (2011).
- Participant in first US IP Mock Trial to Korean legal community in Seoul, Korea (2012).
- Panelist at MOFCOM Business Legal Affairs Annual Meeting, Global IP Issues Workshop in Beijing, China (2012).