Jim Brogan, Partner

Jim Brogan is a partner in the Cooley Litigation department and head of the Colorado Patent Litigation and Patent Prosecution and Counseling practice groups. Mr. Brogan was selected as one of The Best Lawyers in America® in the specialty of Technology Law for the 2008 edition and has been ranked by Chambers and Partners as one of the best patent lawyers in Colorado. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, where he teaches a course on patent litigation. Mr. Brogan joined Cooley in 2000 and is resident in the Colorado and Palo Alto offices.

Mr. Brogan's practice focuses primarily upon patent litigation, licensing, and counseling.  Mr. Brogan has represented clients in numerous patent infringement disputes in the federal courts, he has argued successfully before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and he has taken a lead role in several trademark cancellation and opposition proceedings. Mr. Brogan also has assisted numerous clients, ranging from start-ups to established corporations, with the strategic development and maintenance of their patent and trademark portfolios.

Mr. Brogan's recent litigation and licensing engagements include: a multi-district patent infringement  litigation involving power supply controllers for backlighting applications in liquid crystal displays; a patent litigation involving processing technologies for improving response times and image quality in LCD and other matrix display devices; a multi-district patent infringement litigation involving optoeletronic transceiver modules; a patent litigation and licensing effort involving storage area network (SAN) switching products; and a patent litigation involving power supplies and reactive gas sources for semiconductor manufacturing processes.

In one recent matter, Mr. Brogan's client obtained a favorable jury verdict finding the asserted patent to be not infringed and not valid for obviousness and violation of the on-sale bar.  The patent-in-suit had twice previously been found willfully infringed by other parties not represented by Mr. Brogan or Cooley LLP.

In another relatively recent matter, Mr. Brogan's client obtained a favorable settlement following an indication that the Court intended to find all of the patents asserted against the client unenforceable due to inequitable conduct committed by the patentee before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.  The patents-in-suit had previously been asserted against numerous other industry participants.

Mr. Brogan is one of the driving forces behind the firm's Strategic Intellectual Property Practice, and Mr. Brogan has taken a lead role in managing several of the firm's contingency-based patent litigation and licensing efforts. 

In addition to teaching, Mr. Brogan is a frequent speaker on patent-litigation and patent-prosecution topics.   For example, Mr. Brogan is a co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Intellectual Property Institute, an annual continuing legal education event presented in Denver by the Colorado Bar Association.  Mr. Brogan serves on the planning committee for the Institute and has recently presented on topics including: venue selection in patent litigation, management of infringement risk, claim construction, and patent litigation budgeting.

Mr. Brogan received a Juris Doctorate in 1991 from the University of Houston Law Center, where he was a member of the Order of Barons and an associate editor of the Houston Law Review . 

Before attending law school, Mr. Brogan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, with a specialization in biomedicine and a minor in business. 

Mr. Brogan is admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, the United States District Courts for the Northern, Central, and Southern Districts of California, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the United States Patent & Trademark Office.   Mr. Brogan also is a member of the Colorado and California State Bar Associations, the American Bar Association, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.  And he is a Past President of the Orange County Barristers, an affiliate of the Orange County Bar Association.

Representative Litigation Cases:

• Qualcomm Corp. v. Nokia Corp. (E.D. Tx.) – counsel for Qualcomm Corp. in a patent infringement litigation involving wireless communications technologies.
• O2 Micro International, Ltd. v. Hon Hai Precision Indus. Co., Ltd.  (E.D. Tx.) -- counsel for Hon Hai Precision Industries in a patent infringement action involving controllers for switching power used in LCD backlighting applications.  The litigation was recently settled.
• O2 Micro International, Ltd. v. Monolithic Power Systems, Inc.  (N.D. Ca. and E.D. Tx.) -- counsel for Monolithic Power Systems in a patent infringement action involving controllers for switching power used in LCD backlighting applications.
• Positive Technologies, Inc. v.  Hitachi America et al.  (E.D. Tx.) – counsel for Positive Technologies in a patent infringement action involving processing technologies for improving response speeds and image quality in LCD and other matrix displays.
• Applied Films GMBH & Co. KG v. Galileo Vacuum Systems, Inc. and Galileo Vacuum Systems s.r.l.  (N.D. Ga.) -- counsel for Applied Films in a patent infringement action involving plasma-based web coating systems.
• Phillips v. AWH Corp.  (CAFC) (en banc) - consultant to Phillips' trial counsel in a high-profile appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  The litigation relates to  modular building technologies.
• Quova, Inc. v. Digital Envoy, Inc.  (N.D. Ca.) -- counsel for Quova in a declaratory judgment action related to geo-location software.
• MKS Instruments, Inc. v. Advanced Energy Industries, Inc.  (D. Del.) -- counsel for Advanced Energy in a patent infringement action involving reactive gas sources for use in plasma processing systems.
• Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. v. MKS Instruments, Inc.  (D. Del.) -- counsel for Advanced Energy in a patent infringement action involving reactive gas sources for use in plasma processing applications.
• Stratos Lightwave, Inc. v. Picolight, Inc.  (D. Del.) -- counsel for Picolight in a patent infringement action involving opto-electronic transceiver modules.
• Picolight, Inc. v. Honeywell, Inc.    (D. Del.) -- counsel for Picolight in a patent infringement action involving vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and opto-electronic transceiver products.
• Outlast Technologies, Inc. v. Frisby Technologies, Inc .  (D. Colo.) -- counsel for Outlast in a patent infringement action involving temperature-regulating fibers and fabrics.
• Vixel, Inc. v. Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.  (N.D. Ca.) -- counsel for Vixel in a patent infringement action involving storage area network switching technologies.
• Vixel, Inc. v. QLogic Corporation  (D. Del.) -- counsel for Vixel in a patent infringement action involving storage area network switching technologies.
• IP Learn LLC v. Saba, Inc.  (N.D. Ca.) -- counsel for IP Learn in a patent infringement action involving e-learning systems.
• IP Learn LLC v. SmartForce, Inc.  (N.D. Ca.) -- counsel for IP Learn in a patent infringement action involving e-learning systems.
• IP Learn LLC v. SkillSoft, Inc.  (N.D. Ca.) -- counsel for IP Learn in a patent infringement action involving e-learning systems.
• Vidamed, Inc. v. Prosurge, Inc.  (N.D. Ca.) -- counsel to Vidamed in a patent infringement action involving transurethral needle ablation systems.

Education

• University of Houston Law Center
  JD, 1991
• Southern Methodist University
  BS Electrical Engineering, 1988

Court Admissions

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
• U.S. District Court, Central District of California
• U.S. District Court, District of Colorado
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of California

Admissions

• California
• Colorado
• Registered to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO)

Memberships

• American Bar Association
• American Intellectual Property Law Association