Alex S. Yap

Alex S. Yap is a patent litigation partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP, where he also co-chairs the firm's Post-Grant Strategy + Disputes practice. He focuses his practice on America Invents Act (AIA) trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and broader intellectual property litigation matters. His technical background, including degrees in electrical and computer engineering and prior experience as a circuit design engineer for Freescale (formerly Motorola, Inc.) and Analog Devices, Inc., provides him with expertise in areas such as computer hardware and software architecture, communication systems, digital and analog circuit design, and digital signal processing.

Mr. Yap primarily defends operating companies in patent infringement actions. His tracked appearances show four instances on the defendant side and one on the plaintiff side, consistent with his firm's description of developing litigation strategies for leading technology companies. Notable district court representations include successfully defending Networks in Motion and Verizon Wireless in patent litigation involving downloadable turn-by-turn GPS navigation technology, leading to a summary judgment of non-infringement affirmed by the Federal Circuit. He also successfully defended Yamaha in a patent suit concerning AV receivers and home theater systems, which was dismissed after five of six patents were found unpatentable by the PTAB. He has also been counsel for defendants CrowdStrike Inc. and Crowdstrike Holdings, Inc. in Skysong Innovations, LLC v. CrowdStrike, Inc. et al.

A significant aspect of Mr. Yap's practice is his extensive experience with PTAB and IPR proceedings. Prior to rejoining Morrison & Foerster, he served as an administrative patent judge at the USPTO, where he presided over more than 200 ex parte appeals, inter partes reviews, and covered business method patent proceedings. This background informs his role in co-chairing the firm's PTAB practice and navigating post-grant adversarial proceedings for clients. He was also involved in an IPR, Apple Inc. v. Vampire Labs LLC, which terminated as settled.

Mr. Yap is admitted to the State Bar of California and registered with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. He earned his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School and holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.