James Kirk Dawson

Jim K. Dawson is a shareholder with the firm, focusing on patent, patent portfolio development, and licensing matters. His practice also includes counseling on patent and trademark infringement. Representative technologies in Mr. Dawson's practice include semiconductor manufacturing and process technology, processor hardware and firmware, digital to analog circuitry, semiconductor devices, medical devices, wireless systems and components, CMOS imaging, MEMS and mechanical devices.

Mr. Dawson previously worked as a consultant for the Intellectual Capital Management Group and as in-house Senior Intellectual Property Counsel for Conexant Systems (formerly Rockwell Semiconductor Systems). While with Conexant, he was responsible for patent portfolio development, innovation harvesting and intellectual property training for engineers and management located at design centers in France, Russia, Canada, and the United States, resulting in over 400 U.S. filed patent applications. He also developed U.S. and foreign patent filing strategies, drafted and negotiated complex technology development, non-disclosure, software distribution, and service agreements, performed patent infringement and validity analysis and performed due diligence investigations for M&A and divestiture activities.

Immediately prior to joining the firm, Mr. Dawson worked with Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman in Los Angeles, focusing on patent prosecution, patent and trade dress infringement analysis and licensing.

Mr. Dawson currently serves as Vice-President of the Intellectual Property Section of the Ventura County Bar (2008, 2007). He was named as one of Southern California’s “Rising Stars” in intellectual property law in a survey of his peers, published in Los Angeles Magazine and Super Lawyers Magazine, in both 2005 and 2004. He is a member of the Licensing Committee, Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California and was a contributing editor for Drafting Business Contracts: Principles, Techniques & Forms, CEB 2007, 2006. He is a member of the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association, Orange County Patent Law Association and American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Mr. Dawson earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the school of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1989, and earned his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Dayton, Ohio in 1995. Following his undergraduate studies, Mr. Dawson joined Rockwell International as a Systems Test Engineer, where he worked on the main propulsion system of the space shuttle Endeavor.

Mr. Dawson is admitted to practice in California and before the Federal District Court, Central District. He is also registered to practice before the Patent and Trademark Office. He is a member of the California Bar Association.