John D. Esterhay

John D. Esterhay is a patent and trade secret litigator at Perkins Coie with a practice focused on complex technologies, particularly in the electronics sector. His technical background in materials science and engineering informs his work on cases involving advanced analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, power integrated circuits, CMOS image sensors, and wireless communications. Prior to his legal career, he worked at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Security Agency.

Based on his firm's published representations, Esterhay handles litigation for both plaintiffs and defendants. The provided case data shows him as lead counsel for the defendant Monolithic Power Systems Inc. in Greenthread Ltd v. Monolithic Power Systems Inc. His broader case history includes representing Monolithic Power Systems as a plaintiff in other patent and trade secret disputes, such as against Meraki Integrated Circuit and Silergy Corporation.

Esterhay has experience in proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). For example, he represented T-Mobile in a patent case that involved successful inter partes review (IPR) petitions that led to the dismissal of the district court action. He was also involved in an International Trade Commission (ITC) investigation concerning touchscreen controllers, which included the filing of nine IPR petitions and settled favorably.

He is a member of the State Bar of California.