Peter Magic

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Peter C. Magic — Desmarais LLP (San Francisco)

Practice focus. Magic is a patent trial lawyer and leads Desmarais LLP's California office. His practice spans computer hardware, software, networking/datacenter technology, telecommunications (including standard-essential patents), cellphone technology, semis, medical devices, and molecular diagnostics. Firm and IP Stars/IAM profiles list ITC litigation and patent strategy/counseling alongside district court work. He has a technical background in computer science, which maps to the software- and networking-heavy docket.

Side preference. He is genuinely two-sided, though the public record is weighted toward defense. The structured case list here contains only a single tracked appearance, and it is on the plaintiff side as lead counsel — that one data point is too thin to characterize his practice on its own, and the web-verifiable record shows the opposite skew: defense verdicts for Cisco and Intel, and defense work for Apple (e.g., nCap Licensing v. Apple, D. Utah; Togail Technologies v. Apple, S.D. Cal.). On the plaintiff side, he has represented patent holders such as Enzo Life Sciences in molecular-diagnostics enforcement campaigns, and Apple as plaintiff in Apple v. Masimo (D. Del.). He is not an NPE/PAE-only practitioner; he works both sides, with a larger share of operating-company defense.

Notable matters. Most prominent: Egenera, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc. (D. Mass.), where he was a partner on the trial team that won a complete non-infringement verdict on August 15, 2022 after a two-week jury trial, defeating a $371 million damages demand on the '430 virtual-networking patent; earlier phases produced invalidation of one patent at the motion-to-dismiss stage, invalidation of a second in IPR, and a plaintiff loss after a 2019 bench trial on inventorship. He also tried two Wi-Fi-related patents for Intel in the Eastern District of Texas, obtaining a jury non-infringement finding on one and a Federal Circuit non-infringement holding on the second (case caption not independently verified in this search). He is credited in IAM Patent 1000 with trial work for Apple against Masimo.

PTAB/IPR. His public bio does not advertise a standalone post-grant practice, and Desmarais' designated PTAB lead is a different partner (Yung-Hoon "Sam" Ha). IPR proceedings do appear as components of his district court matters (one Egenera patent fell in an IPR), so his PTAB exposure is best described as litigation-integrated rather than a primary specialty.

Bar/education. J.D., University of Michigan Law School, 2008 (cum laude; Michigan Law Review); M.S. and B.S. in computer science from UT Austin (2004) and Johns Hopkins (2002). Admitted in New York (2009) and California (2011); registered with the USPTO. Prior career: Kirkland & Ellis (2008–2014, New York and San Francisco); joined Desmarais in 2014 and opened its San Francisco office in 2019. Law clerk to the Hon. James Ware (N.D. Cal.), 2009–2010.

Caveat: the tracked-appearance data supplied contains a single, untitled plaintiff-side entry for Magic, which materially understates the activity documented in firm and press sources; the case-level descriptions above come from Desmarais LLP, IAM/IP Stars, Law360, and federal court filings.