Darin Snyder
Partner
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Darin Snyder engineers winning litigation strategies for world-leading companies involved in patent, trade secrets, and technology-intense copyright disputes. Armed with more than 30-years of trial experience, Darin excels in advocacy and in client service. Across the US, his celebrated track-record includes victories at trial, pre-trial, and on appeal — including precedent-setting matters. He heads Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at O’Melveny and is a member of the Executive Committee.
Darin’s successes garner top awards and accolades throughout the industry.
- “Intellectual Property Litigator of the Year.” Benchmark Litigation (2023)
- “Litigator of the Year - California.” Managing IP (2022)
- “Top 100 Lawyers in California.” Daily Journal (2022)
- “Top Intellectual Property Lawyer.” Daily Journal (multiple years)
- “Top Trade Secrets Lawyer.” Daily Journal (multiple years)
- Repeatedly recognized by Chambers USA, the Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal, and Best Lawyers
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Honors & Awards
- Awarded “Intellectual Property Litigator of the Year” by Benchmark Litigation (2023)
- Awarded “Litigator of the Year - California” by Managing Intellectual Property (2022)
- Named one of the “Top 100 Lawyers” in California by the Daily Journal (2022)
- Finalist for ”Diversity & Inclusion Lawyer of the Year” by Chambers North America (2022)
- Named one of the top 75 intellectual property litigators in California by The Daily Journal (2010-2011, 2016, 2018-2022)
- Recognized in Chambers USA as a Leading Lawyer in California, Intellectual Property: Patent (2017-2022)
- Named repeatedly in The Legal 500 US, for Patent, Copyright, Trade Secrets Litigation, and General Commercial Disputes
- Recommended in
- Recognized as a National Practice Area Star and a Local Litigation Star in Intellectual Property by Benchmark Litigation (2021, 2023)
- Recognized by The Daily Journal as a Top Trade Secrets Lawyer (2019-2020)
- Recipient of the Warren Christopher Values Award for exemplifying O’Melveny’s values of uncompromising excellence, distinctive leadership, and superior citizenship (2020)
- Named in Who’s Who Legal: Patents (2016-2022)
- Recognized by Best Lawyers® for Litigation - Intellectual Property and Patent Law in San Francisco, CA (2022-2023); Recognized by Best Lawyers® for Litigation - Patent in San Francisco, CA (2023); Darin has been listed in Best Lawyers® since 2014
- Recognized repeatedly by Law & Politics Media Inc. as a Northern California “Super Lawyer”
Admissions
Bar Admissions
- California
Court Admissions
- US District Court, Central, Northern, Eastern, and Southern Districts of California
- US District Court, District of Colorado
- US District Court, Eastern District of Texas
- US Court of Appeals, Fifth, Ninth and Federal Circuits, Veteran Claims
- California Supreme Court
- US Supreme Court
Education
- University of Chicago, J.D., 1988: cum laude; Hinton Moot Court Champion, 1987; Bradley Law and Government Fellow, 1987-1988
- Georgetown University, B.A., 1985: cum laude
Professional Activities
Member
- Founder and Chair, Bay Urban Debate League (2007-23)
- Former Board Member, Bar Association of San Francisco
- Former Board Member, The Legal Aid Society of San Francisco, Employment Law Center
- Former Co-Chair, American Bar Association, Litigation Section, Intellectual Property Committee, Trade Secrets Sub-committee
Co-Author
- “Trade Secret Law and Corporate Strategy,” (Third Edition, LexisNexis 2018)
- “Testing the Cryptocurrency Patent Waters,” Los Angeles Daily Journal (April 2018)
- “A Survey of In-House Attorney Views on Trade Secrets,” IP Law360 (January 2018)
- “Initial Artifex Ruling Is Victory for Open-Source Software,” Law360 (May 2017)
- “Keeping Secrets: A Practical Introduction to Trade Secret Law and Strategy,” (Oxford University Press 2012)
- “A Statistical Analysis of Trade Secret Litigation in State Courts,” 46 Gonzaga Law Review 57 (February 2011), judged one of the best intellectual property articles published in 2011 and selected for inclusion and republication in the 2012 edition of the Intellectual Property Law Review
- “A Statistical Analysis of Trade Secret Litigation in Federal Courts,” 45 Gonzaga Law Review 291 (March 2010)
- Google. Stepped in as lead trial counsel at the eleventh hour — and won a jury verdict at trial — in a W.D. Tex. patent case accusing Google’s Nest Hub products of infringing patent claims relating to digital picture frame technology. (Profectus Technology LLC v. Google LLC)
- Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. Established leading precedent on venue requirements, and constrained plaintiffs’ efforts to maneuver around them, persuading the Federal Circuit to issue a writ of mandamus ordering the transfer of two patent cases out of W.D. Tex. to N.D. Cal. Solidifying the win, the Supreme Court denied certiorari. (Ikorongo Texas LLC v. Samsung Electronics and Ikorongo v. LG Electronics)
- Samsung Electronics, Waze, and Google. Won a writ of mandamus that halted an E.D. Tex. trial just two weeks before jury selection, transferring three related cases to N.D. Cal. (AGIS Software Development LLC v. Waze Mobile Limited; v. Google; and v. Samsung)
- Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display Company. Battled an aggressive, well-funded, Irish patent-holding company through trial in the US International Trade Commission, involving complex OLED technology. (Certain Active Matrix OLED Display Devices and Components Thereof)
- Google. Won at trial in a D.Del. patent infringement case seeking more than US$100 million in damages. The jury invalidated the patent, found no infringement, and the Federal Circuit affirmed. The case formed the basis of a Nextflix mini-series, “The Billion Dollar Code.” (ART+COM Innovationpool GmbH v. Google Inc.)
- News Corp. subsidiaries, NDS Group plc and NDS Americas. Defeated a plaintiff seeking nearly US$2 billion in damages in a case involving copyright infringement and related claims relating to the software and hardware used to create "smartcards" that decrypt subscription digital television broadcasts. After six years of litigation, a five-week jury trial in C.D. Cal., and related cross-appeals, the plaintiff ended up owing Darin’s client for fees. (EchoStar Corp v. NDS Group PLC)
- Artifex Inc. Broke new legal ground, defeating a motion to dismiss a case of first impression involving open source software licenses, extraterritorial infringement, and potential remedies available to owners of copyrighted software licensed under open source agreements. The win was widely hailed as an important victory for open source development. (Artifex Software, Inc. v. Hancom, Inc.)
- JHL Biotech, Inc. (now Eden Biologics). Defended a complex bet-the-company trade secrets case against biotech giant Genentech, Inc.; securing a preliminary injunction order that allowed the company to continue to operate. (Genentech, Inc. v. JHL Biotech, Inc., et al.)
- Niantic, Inc. Secured the dismissal and Federal Circuit affirmance, under § 101, of 44 patent claims asserted against Niantic's wildly popular Pokémon GO application. (Location Based Services, LLC v. Niantic, Inc.)
- Google. Invalidated all asserted claims of all asserted patents in inter partes review proceedings, resulting in the dismissal of a related patent infringement case accusing Google’s Chrome browser and the Google Maps application installed on over a dozen models of Google-, Motorola-, and Samsung-branded mobile devices; the Federal Circuit affirmed. (Micrografx, LLC v. Google)