David Tsai

David is a Partner in Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP’s San Francisco office and is Co-Managing Partner of the firm’s Taipei Office.  David is a first-chair trial lawyer and focuses his practice on intellectual property and complex commercial litigation, including patent, trade secret, trademark, copyright, breach of contract, and product defect disputes in federal and state courts, as well as international arbitration tribunals.

David represents leading global innovators in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, software (including AI, internet and mobile applications) and hardware technologies (including semiconductor, set-top box, smartphone, solar wafer and LED/OLED technologies).  In addition to high-stakes litigation, his experience includes preparing and prosecuting U.S. electrical engineering patent applications; drafting patentability, freedom-to-operate and non-infringement opinions; and filing inter partes review (IPR) petitions.  He regularly advises his clients in patent negotiations, licensing strategies, M&A transactions, and broader intellectual property portfolio strategy.  David has been quoted in major business and technology publications, including The New York Times and Law360, and frequently writes and lectures on Hatch-Waxman/Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) litigation, standard essential patents, FRAND/RAND royalties, internet software applications and U.S. patent law.

From 2017−2019, he served as one of the 18 lawyer representatives to the United States District Court, Northern District of California.  He has also served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees for the University of California, Riverside (UCR), Foundation and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Santa Clara University School of Law.  He previously served as president of the Harvard Club of San Francisco, the Silicon Valley IP Law Association (SVIPLA), and the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area (AABA).  In 2016, David was recognized by the California State Legislature for his work in civil rights.

Before entering the legal profession, David worked in product management at a biotechnology company and at internet/software startups backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the Mayfield Fund.  During his graduate studies at Stanford University, where he focused on stem cell gene therapy,  David co-led the development of Stanford’s first online problem sets.

David is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law and serves as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Ethics Commission.