Craig R. Kaufman

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Craig R. Kaufman — patent litigator, California bar No. 159458; USPTO Reg. No. 34,636.

Specialty / focus. Kaufman's docket work spans life sciences and biotechnology (the DNA-microarray patents at issue in Affymetrix), semiconductor and computer hardware (memory maker Nanya; Acer/Gateway; HP and Kingston in NPE suits), consumer products (nail/dental preparation patents in the Mycone Dental matter), and software/e-commerce patents asserted by non-practicing entities (B.E. Technology's patent 6,628,314 against social-media and consumer web defendants). Practice materials describe his work as patent litigation plus patent prosecution and counseling, with a life-sciences/health-care flavor in his Orrick years.

Side preference. The authoritative tracked list shows one appearance, on the plaintiff side (Affymetrix). That snapshot understates a career that has been predominantly defense-oriented: he spent the bulk of his Orrick tenure on patent defense, and his later work at TechKnowledge Law Group is almost entirely defense (Acer, and codefendants in In re Koninklijke Philips Patent Litigation). The main counterweight is a 2011–2014 period at Freitas Tseng & Kaufman, the plaintiffs'/NPE-side boutique he co-founded, where he prosecuted infringement actions such as the B.E. Technology campaigns in the Western District of Tennessee. Net: experienced on both sides, but more defense-weighted over the full career.

Firm context. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (Silicon Valley/Menlo Park) is the tracked firm and where he made partner. In 2011 he left with Orrick partners Robert E. Freitas and Kaiwen Tseng to launch Freitas Tseng Baik & Kaufman, renamed Freitas Tseng & Kaufman LLP (Redwood Shores/Redwood City) — a firm formed explicitly to do plaintiffs' and NPE work. He subsequently moved to Freitas Angell & Weinberg LLP (departed June 2014) and by 2016 was a partner at TechKnowledge Law Group LLP (Redwood Shores/Redwood City), which court filings identify as his firm as of 2019–2023.

Notable matters and PTAB. The most prominent tracked case is Affymetrix, Inc. v. Synteni, Inc. (D. Del. 1998, 28 F. Supp. 2d 192; transferred to N.D. Cal.), where he was part of the Orrick team representing Affymetrix against Synteni/Incyte on the '934, '305 and '992 microarray patents. He also appeared in the NPE-side B.E. Technology suits (stayed pending IPRs, withdrawal in 2014), for defendant Creative Nail Design in Mycone Dental Supply v. Creative Nail Design (N.D. Cal.), for Acer in In re Koninklijke Philips Patent Litigation (N.D. Cal. 2019), and for Acer in Wiesblatt Licensing LLC v. Acer America (W.D. Tex. 2022). He has PTAB and appellate experience: he was lead counsel for the patent owner in IPR2017-01415, appears in connection with IPR2015-00459, and argued before the Federal Circuit (No. 16-2214, argued June 14, 2017) on an appeal arising from an IPR. A December 2004 legal-news report lists him among the Orrick trial team on a matter led by NY partner Richard Thomasch; the case name and outcome are not verified from the sources reviewed.

Bar / education. Admitted in California (1992; also listed in Georgia and D.C. bar records) and registered to practice before the USPTO. Directory aggregators list a J.D. from George Washington University Law School; that education detail is not independently confirmed by a primary or firm source, and the name "Craig R. Kaufman" is shared by several unrelated attorneys (including a Tucson business lawyer and a D.C.-area government lawyer), so any further sourcing should be name-disambiguated.