Alex S.F. Yap

I'll research this attorney's background before drafting.

Let me verify the tracked case outcome and educational background.

Alex S.F. Yap — Morrison & Foerster (Los Angeles) — patent litigation and PTAB practice summary

Specialty / focus. Yap's practice centers on America Invents Act trials before the PTAB and post-grant strategy, paired with district court and ITC patent litigation. He co-chairs MoFo's PTAB practice (also described as its Post-Grant Strategy + Disputes practice) and is a member of the firm's IP Litigation group (Chambers USA 2025 profile; mofo.com). His technical background is electrical/computer engineering — he worked as a circuit design engineer at Freescale (formerly Motorola) and Analog Devices on embedded flash memory and ADSL chipsets before law school — and the matters he is credited with span semiconductors and circuit/architecture design, display-panel technology (low-temperature polysilicon TFT), GPS/navigation software, data-encryption software, and consumer camera hardware. Chambers notes particular experience with both utility and design patents. Caution: third-party patent databases associate his USPTO registration number with a large life-sciences prosecution portfolio (Genentech, Roche, Seagen, etc.); that data appears to be firm-level rather than a verified record of his own representations, so I would not attribute it to him without further confirmation.

Side preference. The tracked dataset is thin — one appearance, on the defendant side (GoPro v. Insta360) — so it alone is not a reliable indicator. Web-verifiable matters show a predominantly defense-side district court/ITC practice for operating companies (Insta360, Xilinx, Yamaha, Verizon/Networks in Motion, MaxLinear, Altera/LSI), while his PTAB work runs both ways: he has petitioned on behalf of challengers (Amazon, BOE Technology, CB Distributors/NJoy, Xilinx) and defended patent owners against instituted IPRs (Virtru against Microsoft). He is not an NPE/PAE-side filer.

Firm context. Yap has spent essentially his entire legal career at Morrison & Foerster: roughly 11 years at the firm, then about four years (2016–2020) as an administrative patent judge at the USPTO's San Jose office, and a return to MoFo as a partner in its Los Angeles office in January 2020 (Law.com; firm announcement). No other law firm affiliations appear in the sources reviewed. A firm diversity publication lists him as managing partner of the Los Angeles office; that detail is firm-sourced and lightly corroborated elsewhere.

Notable matters. The most prominent tracked case is GoPro, Inc. v. Insta360 (Arashi Vision (U.S.) LLC), where Yap was part of the MoFo team defending Insta360. In ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1400, the Commission issued a final determination on February 26, 2026 clearing Insta360 on all six asserted patents — five utility patents held invalid, not infringed, or both, with the Commission reversing the ALJ's infringement finding on the '052 patent — and the ALJ's finding that Insta360's redesigned products fall outside GoPro's asserted design patent became final (ITC/company announcements; PR Newswire). Other reported results include summary judgment of non-infringement for Verizon/Cellco and Networks in Motion in Vehicle IP v. General Motors, affirmed by the Federal Circuit; dismissal of Black Hills Media v. Yamaha after five of six asserted patents were held unpatentable; and a confidential settlement for Virtru in its Western District of Washington suit against Microsoft.

PTAB / IPR. This is his core practice and he appears regularly. As an APJ he presided over more than 200 ex parte appeals, IPRs, and CBM proceedings; since returning he has served as lead or backup counsel in numerous IPRs (e.g., IPR2024-00495, IPR2026-00280 for Amazon, and a 2025 BOE Technology group of petitions terminated following settlement). He was named PTAB Practitioner of the Year at the 2025 Managing IP Americas Awards and is ranked Band 2 for PTAB work in Chambers USA.

Bar / education. Admitted to the State Bar of California (No. 241400, 2006) and registered with the USPTO (Reg. No. 60,609); B.S. and M.S. in electrical and computer engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison (1993, 1998); J.D., magna cum laude, University of Minnesota Law School (2005), Minnesota Law Review editor and Order of the Coif.