PTAB judge rejoins Morrison & Foerster

An administrative patent judge at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in San Jose has rejoined law firm Morrison & Foerster.

Alex Yap joins the firm’s IP litigation group in Los Angeles after nearly four years as a judge.

During his time at the USPTO, Yap presided on more than 200 ex parte appeals and inter partes reviews (IPRs) and covered business method patent proceedings. He was previously at Morrison & Foerster for 11 years and, before beginning his legal career, held senior technology and engineering roles at Freescale (formerly Motorola) and Analog Devices.

Richard Hung, co-chair of Morrison & Foerster’s IP litigation group, said: “Alex’s insights from his time as an administrative patent law judge will be particularly valuable to clients navigating post-grant adversarial proceedings, especially IPRs.”

Yap will focus his practice on IP litigation and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) litigation matters, advising companies across multiple sectors, including those in the technology space.

He said: “I’m excited to have the opportunity to bring my knowledge to the firm’s already strong PTAB bench and to once again work closely with the team at MoFo to help our clients protect and enforce their IP.”

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