Alex Yap is a partner in the Intellectual Property Group. As a former administrative patent law judge at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), he helps clients navigate post-grant adversarial proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). He focuses his practice on America Invents Act (AIA) trials before the PTAB, as well as IP litigation matters.
Prior to rejoining the firm, Alex served as an administrative patent judge at the USPTO in San Jose, CA. In that capacity, he presided on more than 200 ex parte appeals, inter partes review (IPR), and covered business method (CBM) patent proceedings.
Utilizing his electrical and computer engineering degrees and experience from senior engineering roles, Alex spent 11 years at MoFo advising technology clients on patent litigations. During that time, he was involved in more than 30 PTO reexamination/review proceedings, and obtained cancellations of the asserted claims in numerous cases.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Alex spent more than four years as a circuit design engineer for Freescale (formerly Motorola Inc.) and Analog Devices Inc., designing embedded non-volatile (flash) memories and asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) chipsets. During that time, he developed extensive expertise in computer hardware and software architecture, communication systems, digital and analog circuit design, and digital signal processing. He has published numerous technical articles in trade journals and is an inventor on multiple U.S. patents.
Alex received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1993 and 1998 respectively, and his J.D. degree magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota School of Law in 2005. He was an editor of The Minnesota Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.
Alex is a member of the California State Bar and is registered to practice before the USPTO. He is also a member of the American Association of Patent Judges.