Brian Cook is a highly trained patent and technology litigator with a doctorate in nuclear physics from Caltech and nearly a decade of experience in the aerospace industry at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He represents a broad spectrum of clients in various industries including consumer electronics, broadcasting, software, Internet-related technologies, streaming digital media, semiconductors, optical display technologies, and wireless communications. Brian has extensive experience litigating in District Court, before the International Trade Commission, and before the USPTO in inter partes review (IPR) and covered business method (CBM) proceedings. His experience includes patent infringement, trade secret, breach of technology licensing agreement, and standards-essential patent licensing disputes.
Brian worked as an engineer, technical group supervisor, and project element manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the Mars Program for eight years prior to joining O’Melveny. He led the design team that developed the telecommunications system for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that landed on Mars in 2003 and subsequently was awarded a NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal. Brian then managed a group of more than forty engineers developing the flight avionics subsystem for the Mars Curiosity rover. Brian is also experienced in telecommunications systems engineering, flight transponder development, flight radar hardware design and development, radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) design, digital signal processing, digital ASIC and FPGA design, and software development.
Experience
- Represented several multi-national consumer electronics companies in patent disputes in the International Trade Commission and Federal District Courts involving wireless communications standards, audio compression technologies, graphical touch-enabled user interfaces, graphics processing units, microprocessors, memories, media streaming technologies, optical data storage, liquid crystal and active-matrix organic light emitting diode displays, and other technologies used in laptops, smartphones, tablets, and televisions.
- Successfully resolved numerous Section 337 USITC investigations for multiple consumer electronics companies involving blu-ray technology, optical disc drives, LCD displays, graphics processors, and digital television technology.
- Prevailed on summary judgment in District Court, invalidating all patents asserted against a major satellite broadcasting company targeting its digital television broadcasting systems.
- Successfully resolved patent litigation brought against the leading digital radio broadcasting companies involving digital streaming to mobile devices and internet radio broadcasting.
- Prevailed in high-stakes binding arbitration involving television content distribution contracts for a leading media broadcasting company.
- Successfully resolved multiple District Court patent infringement cases brought in E.D. Texas and N.D. California for two world-leading smartphone manufacturers.
- Representing a leading microprocessor manufacturer in multiple patent infringement cases brought in W.D. Texas and D. Delaware involving microprocessor bus architectures and memory interfacing technology.
- Represented both patent owners and patent challengers in over 50 inter partes reviews (IPRs) and three covered business method (CBM) reviews before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Languages
- French
Admissions
Bar Admissions
- California
Court Admissions
- U.S. District Court, Central and Northern Districts of California
Registered to Practice
- U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
Education
- University of Southern California, J.D.: order of the coif; Ray R. and Dorothy R. Goldie Scholar; Teaching Fellow, Legal Writing and Advocacy; Grading Fellow, G. Lefcoe Real Estate Development and Financing; Member, Southern California Law Review
- California Institute of Technology, Ph.D., Experimental Nuclear Physics; M.S., Physics
- Yale University, B.S., Physics: cum laude; DeForest Pioneers Prize for creative achievement in physics
Honors & Awards
- Recognized by Managing Intellectual Property as a “Rising Star” - National (2022)
- NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
- NASA Group Achievement Award
- Multiple JPL NOVA awards
- Multiple NASA Achievement Awards
- National Science Foundation Fellowship
Professional Activities
Board of Directors
- Lincoln Training Center
Author
- “Intellectual Property Law,” California Litigation Review (2008) (co-author)
- “Clearing a Path for Digital Development: Taking Patents in Eminent Domain Through the Adoption of Mandatory Standards,” 82 S. Cal. L. Rev. 97 (2008)
- “Frequency-Agile Multi-Channel X-Band Coherent Receiver and Transmitter,” NASA IPN Progress Reports 42-166 (August 16,2006) (co-author)
- “Development of the Advanced Deep Space Transponder,” NASA IPN Progress Reports (February 15, 2004) (co-author)
- “Fast neutron production by 190 GeV/c muon interactions on different targets,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods A 490 (1-2), p334-43 (2002) (co-author)
- “Final results from the Palo Verde neutrino oscillation experiment,” Physical Review D v6411 (2001) (co-author)
- “The NASA Spacecraft Transponding Modem,” NASA Tech Brief NPO-21004, (2001) (co-author)
- “Neutron Production by cosmic-ray muons at shallow depth,” Physical Review D v6209 (2000) (co-author)
- “Search for neutrino oscillations at the Palo Verde Nuclear Reactors,” Physical Review Letters v84 (2000) (co-author)
- “A method to calibrate a neutrino detector using the positron emitter Ge-68,” Nuclear Instrument and Methods A 385, p85-90 (1997) (co-author)
- “The San Onofre Neutrino Oscillation Experiment,” Nuclear Physics B 35, p447-49 (1994) (co-author)
- "H-2, D-2, and HD ionization potentials by accurate calibration of several iodine lines,” Physical Review A 47(5), p4042-45 (1993) (co-author)