John Gartman, J.D.

John Gartman, J.D. is a Senior Advisor with Intensity and a nationally recognized trial lawyer and intellectual property expert. His peers, clients, and the press have consistently voted him one of the top lawyers in the nation, and his accomplishments include the prestigious California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) Award. Mr. Gartman’s style is practical, constructive, and creative. Clients often seek him to solve thorny problems that require broad experience and unconventional approaches in the following areas of expertise within intellectual property:

• Litigation – from theory development through appeal
• Valuation, licensing, sales, and purchasing
• Acting as Mediator
• Expert witness
• Holistic IP enforcement or defense: litigation, PTO, ADR
• Strategic patent prosecution
• Proper selection and downstream management of outside counsel
• Pricing of legal fees and creative fee arrangements
• Assuring legal-team efficiency through workflows, best practices, and automation
• Assessment of legal team performance, case strength, and needed corrections
• Coaching executives and technologists on effective written and oral presentations

Mr. Gartman has more than 60,000 hours of experience representing marquee clients in high stakes, high technology IP litigation in courts across the United States and before the U.S. International Trade Commission. His accomplishments include the 2009 CLAY Award (three multi-billion dollar wins for Microsoft against Alcatel-Lucent), two National Law Journal Top 10 Defense Wins of the Year, and a 2008 Top Litigation Win of the Year from IP Law and Business. Mr. Gartman was named to the National Law Journal’s Appellate Hot List for winning the largest patent appeal in history and was also recognized by IP Worldwide as one of the “Magnificent 7” Young Trial Lawyers in IP in 2002.

Mr. Gartman was the inaugural recipient of the Best Lawyer’s San Diego Litigation Intellectual Property Lawyer of the Year, the only lawyer in San Diego voted by peer review to receive this honor, was one of eight finalists for Intellectual Property Magazine’s 2010 Worldwide IP Lawyer of the Year, and is a BTI Consulting Group Client Service All Star – an attorney identified by corporate counsel, unprompted and by name, as the absolute best at delivering client service.

San Diego Metropolitan named Mr. Gartman one of the Top 25 lawyers in San Diego across all fields of law. The Daily Journal named him one of California’s “Top 25 IP Lawyers,” and the San Diego Daily Transcript lists him as a Top 10 Lawyer in IP law. Since 2003, Chambers USA has named him one of the “Leaders in Their Field,” citing him as one of the leading lawyers in the United States. His peers have elected Mr. Gartman to Best Lawyers in America since 2002. He is also a Southern California and San Diego “Super Lawyer” and Lawdragon named him one of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America. The San Diego Daily Transcript named him one of the city’s Top 100 Influentials in 2008. He is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale Hubbel.

Mr. Gartman obtained degrees in electrical engineering with highest honors and law with honors from the University of Texas, where he received the celebrated College of Engineering Outstanding Scholar-Leader Award. He clerked for the Honorable Giles S. Rich (co-author of the patent statute) on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. After founding Fish & Richardson’s Silicon Valley Office in 1993, he led the firm’s San Diego office in 1998. Mr. Gartman served for 10 years on the firm’s Management Committee and was also Head of Litigation and Head of Recruiting for the firm nationwide.

Mr. Gartman has also been an invited member of the Intellectual Property Advisory Committee for the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, and is an approved mediator for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He was a faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy for more than a decade and a Master of the J. Wallace Clifford Inn of Court.

Mr. Gartman is past-Chairman of the Foundation Board of San Diego Zoo Global and on the Board of Directors of Nature and Culture International. He is past-President and Chairman of the Invention Foundation and the John & Jill Gartman Foundation.

Mr. Gartman is a frequent invited speaker on the topic of how to achieve creativity, ingenuity, and innovation. His lectures have been featured on University of California TV.