James Y.C. Sze is a registered patent attorney with over 20 years of experience in applying patent law to business problems. James focuses his practice on advising clients on intellectual property due diligence for corporate transactions, complex domestic and international patent prosecution in the electrical engineering and software technologies, and counseling on patent infringement issues. His practice includes patent portfolio management, identifying technology for IP protection, auditing in-house intellectual property management practices, patent prosecution, and managing international patent litigation, particularly in electrical and medical device patents.
James advises on patent validity, infringement, and enforceability, as well as freedom to operate within a particular technological space. He represents clients in computer graphics, computer communications technology, computer architecture, and bioinformatics, as well as university technology transfer offices. He has represented clients in intellectual property litigation in venues that include U.S. district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, James also advises his clients on protecting their intellectual property in the Far East. His representative technology areas include medical devices, analog and digital circuits, natural language processing, semiconductors, optics, ultra-violet/laser equipment, image processing, hard disk drives, Radio-Frequency antennas, nanodevices, microprocessor design, computer networking, encryption and data compression, computer simulation, and business methods.
Prior to joining the firm, James was a partner in the San Diego, California office of a national law firm as a member of its Patents Group and he focused on electrical and communications technology, software, and business methods.
As a former engineer with Qualcomm, Inc. in San Diego, California, James designed satellite communications software, messaging systems, and other wireless applications. James also has enforced, licensed, and assisted in the sale of patents he has written.
James was recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® in 2023, 2024 and 2025 for Patent Law. He was recommended in 2019 by Legal 500 US for Patent Prosecution. James was a finalist for “Top IP Attorney” awarded in 2008 by the San Diego Daily Transcript and was recognized as a semi-finalist for the award in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2014.
Insights View All
Adversarial Patent Prosecution℠
Asset Creation - Prosecution & Counseling
University of San Diego School of Law J.D. (1999)
University of California, San Diego M.S.
(1994)
Electrical and Computer Engineering,
The 1994 National Information Infrastructure Fellowship
University of California, Berkeley B.S. (1991) Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University of California, Berkeley B.S. (1991) Materials Science Engineering
California (1999)
District of Columbia (2014)
New York (2015)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (2001)
Berkeley Engineering Alumni Society, Board of Directors, Member
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