Olson Stein

Olson Stein LLP — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Firm overview. Olson Stein LLP is a two-partner IP and complex-litigation boutique based in Newport Beach, California (240 Nice Lane, Suite 301), founded by litigators Nancy Olson and David Stein (olsonstein.com). It is not an AmLaw-ranked firm and has no reported firm-level Chambers ranking; the practice is best characterized as a small, trial-focused regional patent boutique. The founders bring BigLaw pedigrees (Stein was previously a partner at Brown Rudnick, Alston & Bird, and Akin Gump) and government experience, and both hold individual recognitions — Best Lawyers, IAM Patent 1000, and The Legal 500 for Stein; LAIPLA board membership for Olson.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's practice spans patent, trademark, trade secret, and copyright litigation plus licensing disputes, complex commercial cases, and appeals before the Federal Circuit and Ninth Circuit. Stein's verified patent trial experience covers semiconductors and processing, medical devices, agriculture, sporting goods, hospitality, and business methods, with 19 cases tried to verdict (olsonstein.com/david-stein). Olson has deep expertise in the Central District of California, where she served as a law clerk to the district's Patent Program and now works as a court-appointed special master and technical advisor in patent cases. The tracked case, GoTV Streaming v. Netflix, involves wireless-device content rendering and mobile media software — consistent with the firm's streaming/software-technology focus.

Side preference. The authoritative appearance data shows one tracked matter — GoTV Streaming, LLC v. Netflix, Inc. (C.D. Cal., 2:22-cv-07556) — plaintiff-side, with David Stein serving as local counsel alongside lead counsel Alavi & Anaipakos. The firm's own materials say it represents both plaintiffs and defendants, and its current, verifiable workload skews plaintiff-side for an operating company: Olson Stein represents InterDigital in InterDigital v. Walt Disney Co. (C.D. Cal., 2:25-cv-00895) and appears in related streaming-video matters including Dolby Laboratories v. InterDigital and Crestwood I-A LLC v. Sonos (Law360 firm docket). No defendant-side representation appears in the tracked record.

Notable cases or outcomes. In GoTV Streaming v. Netflix, Olson Stein's tracked case, GoTV won a $2.5 million jury verdict in October 2023; Judge R. Gary Klausner later found the case "exceptional" and ordered Netflix's Willkie Farr counsel to pay GoTV's fees after they abandoned an invalidity defense at the eleventh hour (Daily Journal; Dkt. 457). However, in February 2026 the Federal Circuit reversed, holding the three asserted patents invalid under Alice as directed to abstract ideas, vacating the verdict (Appeal No. 2024-1744). In the ongoing InterDigital v. Disney matter, the court stayed the case in June 2026 under the customer-suit exception pending the related Dolby declaratory-judgment action and USPTO ex parte reexaminations of two InterDigital patents (Law360).

PTAB / IPR practice. No verifiable PTAB/IPR filing or defense practice could be confirmed for Olson Stein. The firm's only verified USPTO-adjacent work is the ex parte reexamination track in InterDigital v. Disney (involving U.S. Patent Nos. 8,406,301 and 11,381,818), which is not IPR practice. Its appellate experience is in the Federal Circuit and Ninth Circuit on district-court appeals, not agency proceedings.

Key partners / practice leaders. David M. Stein (Georgetown Law, 1996) — founding partner, lead trial counsel with roughly 29 years' experience, 19 cases tried to verdict, admitted in California and Texas and before the Federal Circuit; recognized by Best Lawyers, IAM Patent 1000, Legal 500, and Lawdragon. Nancy M. Olson (UCLA Law, 2008) — founding partner, former federal prosecutor and Patent Program clerk for the C.D. Cal., now a sought-after special master and technical advisor in patent cases in that district; co-counsel for InterDigital in the Disney litigation. Both are based in the firm's single Newport Beach office.