John M. Carson

With three decades of intellectual property law experience, John Carson’s practice involves representing clients at varying stages of the growth curve in the acquisition, protection and exploitation of IP rights. In particular, John advises on patent portfolio management and development that maximizes value in complex IP and specialized industry environments. John is driven by excellence and entrepreneurial thinking. He provides clear, pragmatic and creative legal advice incorporating actionable business strategies. John’s technological experience is also diverse and includes healthcare software, video and image processing, mobile phone synchronization and security software, flat panel displays, Li-ion batteries, fuel cells and semiconductors.

Advisor to some of the most important industry leaders and thought-innovators of today, John serves as lead U.S. counsel for the world’s largest independent microelectronics and nanotechnology institute, and for the global leader in next generation flat panel display technology. John’s clients range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups that are international in scope and reach far beyond the U.S. into the European and Asian markets. John has extensive experience advising start-ups with Plug and Play accelerator companies from founding funding, scaling to exit. John is also the founder of the firm’s Greater China Practice Group and is a trusted advisor to many Asian- and other foreign-owned companies doing business worldwide.

John’s legal practice is frankly, all about business. Notably, a sampling of John’s recent accomplishments include the representation of patent owners in concurrent reexamination and litigation proceedings that resulted in a $260M license settlement; a Board appeal reversing the rejection of all claims in a patent that is the subject of licensing to over 50 companies and 35 lawsuits; and the development of a monetization strategy relating to asset sales in a 900+ patent portfolio. He also served as a primary legal advisor and strategist in the negotiation of a cross-license to a worldwide patent portfolio and pre-filing due diligence initiative for bringing an infringement suit with 11 selected patents.

John is a California-focused private equity investor and advisor for the Technology Entrepreneurship Clinic (managed by CONNECT and USD Law School). John was also a past president of the International Technology Law Association (ITechLaw) and UCSD CONNECT Financial Forum. A previous adjunct professor of law, speaker and educator, John currently serves as Working Committee Chairman for international policy harmonization of IP as part of the United States Group of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI-US).

At the top of his game, John is consistently ranked among premier lawyers practicing today. In addition to his Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating, John has been listed in the U.S. and abroad for his legal accomplishments in such publications as The Best Lawyers in America, Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) - The World's Leading Patent Professionals, The Legal 500, American Lawyer Media, San Diego Magazine, the World’s Leading Trademark Law Practitioners, The San Diego Daily Transcript, Who’s Who publications (California, International Business and Internet & e-Commerce Lawyers), Super Lawyers and Euromoney.