Jedediah Wakefield

415-875-2331
jwakefield@fenwick.com
Chair
Litigation
Partner
Litigation

Jedediah
Wakefield

Jedediah
Wakefield

Jedediah
Wakefield

Partner
Litigation
Chair
Litigation

Jed chairs Fenwick’s litigation group. He regularly handles high-stakes cases for technology and life sciences companies, including trade secret, copyright, trademark, and right of publicity matters, as well as complex commercial and technology licensing disputes. Jed also represents companies in advertising, privacy, and unfair competition cases, and he successfully defends clients in state and federal consumer class action lawsuits.

Jed has handled cases across the country in trial and appellate courts and in arbitration. He has also represented clients before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and in Section 337 investigations instituted by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Jedediah is a standout litigator and subject matter expert. He has incredibly broad experience and is a real strategist and thought partner."

Chambers USA, Client Quote

2023 Edition

Trademark Litigation

Jed has handled all variety of trademark disputes—from routine trademark enforcement matters to hard-fought litigation in federal court—for well-known brand owners such as Symantec, Google and Twitter.

  • Represented fitness technology company Peloton in a trademark infringement lawsuit brought by the publisher of Peloton Magazine in the Central District of California, winning summary judgment on all of plaintiff’s claims.
  • Defended wearable technology company Fitbit in trademark infringement suit brought by Fitbug in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Won summary judgment on all of plaintiff’s claims on laches grounds.
  • Defended GoPro against trade dress infringement claims in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. Won motion to dismiss on the grounds that plaintiff had failed to show protectable trade dress rights.
  • Represented AIEn USA and Industrias AIEn, one of Mexico’s leading household products companies and its U.S. subsidiary, in significant trademark dispute brought by Clorox in district court and the International Trade Commission. Matter settled favorably.
  • Represented Google before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in an opposition to a tour company’s application to register the mark SOOGLE. Won summary judgment in Google’s favor.
  • Defended Groupon in trademark infringement lawsuit brought by Groupion. Defeated preliminary injunction motion and ultimately won summary judgment of non-infringement on all of plaintiff’s claims.
  • Represented Symantec in trademark infringement suit against Comodo concerning logos used for security and authentication services. Comodo dropped its use of the disputed logo and withdrew its trademark application.
  • Represented Twitter in trademark lawsuit over third party trademark registration that infringed Twitter’s TWEET mark.
  • Represented Google before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Obtained summary judgment refusing registration of the applicant’s “FUNTOOGLE” mark.
  • Represented online shopping site in trademark infringement lawsuit against competitor, securing a settlement in which the competitor changed its name, withdrew its trademark applications and transferred its domain names to our client.
  • Represented international publisher Harlequin Enterprises in a trademark infringement, dilution and false advertising claim against a film production company in federal court in Los Angeles. After Jed filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, the defendant agreed to change its name.

Copyright Litigation

Jed has represented plaintiffs and defendants in copyright litigation across the country.

  • Successfully defended internet security company Cloudflare against contributory copyright infringement claims for providing online services to retailers who allegedly infringed copyrights in plaintiffs’ images. The court granted Cloudflare’s motion for summary judgment, concluding that no reasonable jury could find that Cloudflare materially contributed to the alleged infringement.
  • Defended Cox Communications in a two-week jury trial seeking to hold Cox liable for vicarious and contributory copyright infringement. The jury found for Cox on the vicarious copyright infringement claim. Although the jury found for BMG on the contributory infringement claim, they awarded only a fraction of the statutory damages BMG sought, and the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the trial court verdict for BMG, agreeing with Cox that the trial court gave erroneous jury instructions on the issue of contributory infringement. The case later settled.
  • Represented Chordiant Software (now part of Pegasystems), Chordiant’s CEO, and its general counsel in a copyright infringement lawsuit in federal court in San Jose, California. Chordiant had admitted that it owed plaintiffs damages for use and distribution of plaintiffs’ software products, but disputed plaintiffs’ claim to tens of millions of dollars in damages and profits. Following a two week trial, the jury returned a verdict of approximately 5% of what plaintiffs had requested. Prior to trial, we secured a voluntary dismissal for the CEO, and won summary judgment in favor of Chordiant’s former general counsel. Also defeated plaintiffs’ claims for statutory damages and attorneys’ fees.
  • Defended mobile game publisher ngmoco against claims of copyright infringement over a leading game for the iPhone. We quickly convinced the other side to drop its claims and acknowledge our client’s rights to continue distributing its game.
  • Defeated copyright infringement claims brought by IBM against Compuware in a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Michigan. The Court agreed with Compuware that IBM's claims were barred on equitable grounds and granted summary judgment in Compuware's favor.
  • Represented Symantec, BindView Development and BindView's former CEO in a copyright infringement case in federal court in San Francisco. Obtained summary judgment in favor of all defendants and defeated plaintiff's claims for fraud and breach of contract.
  • Defended Sun Microsystems and Storage Technology in a software copyright lawsuit. The court granted summary judgment for all defendants, finding that their use of the allegedly infringed software was licensed. The Court also awarded our clients attorneys’ fees after we defeated plaintiffs’ effort to revive the copyright claims in a second lawsuit.
  • Represented Brøderbund in the successful defense of a claim that an educational video game infringed plaintiff’s copyright in a children's educational television program.

Trade Secret Litigation

  • Led the defense team for a biotech company and several of its employees in a trade secrets case in the District of Colorado and at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Defeated plaintiff’s preliminary injunction motion, successfully defended that victory on appeal, and ultimately secured a dismissal of all claims.
  • Represented Symantec in a trade secret misappropriation case against a former Symantec employee and his new employer. Secured a permanent injunction requiring the return of Symantec confidential information and barring defendants’ use or disclosure of that information.
  • Successfully defended Wyse Technology in claim for breach of a nondisclosure agreement relating to “thin client” technology. After moving for summary judgment on the grounds that plaintiff itself had publicly disclosed the allegedly confidential information, plaintiff dismissed its case.
  • Served as trial counsel for Compuware in a case involving copyright, trade secret and antitrust claims. After a five-week jury trial, the case settled in Compuware's favor for $400M.
  • Represented plaintiff Flextronics in a trade secrets and breach of contract case involving fiber optic technology.
  • Successfully defended a risk modeling technology company in a trade secrets case involving wildfire risk assessment technology.

Class Action Defense

  • Defended digital content company in a consumer class action alleging violation of automatic renewal and gift certificate laws.
  • Represented social networking service in consumer class action over alleged privacy violations.
  • Successfully defended a major “daily deal” company in purported class action involving online advertising practices.
  • Represented internet travel site in a consumer class action involving booking and cancellation fee disclosures.
  • Defended digital stock photography company against purported right of publicity violations.

Complex Commercial Disputes

  • Represented GPS navigation technology company TomTom in multimillion-dollar breach of warranty case against chip maker Broadcom.
  • Represented a global IT and business consultancy company in a claim for fraud and breach of the duty of loyalty against a medical technology company and its founder. Obtained a permanent injunction barring the defendants from using any of the disputed technology.
  • Represented plaintiff Telos, a manufacturer of wireless telephone network technology, in an arbitration over a $2.4M indemnity dispute and a lawsuit involving a $19M “earnout” arising from an asset purchase agreement.
  • Represented BroadLogic Network Technologies in a multimillion-dollar commercial dispute involving satellite networking technology.
  • Represented the Game Developers Conference in a dispute with one of the company's early members concerning shareholder rights.

Right of Publicity

Jed has handled numerous disputes involving right of publicity claims, including the successful defense of a class action case against a major publisher of stock photography.

Trademark Litigation

Jed has handled all variety of trademark disputes—from routine trademark enforcement matters to hard-fought litigation in federal court—for well-known brand owners such as Symantec, Google and Twitter.

  • Represented fitness technology company Peloton in a trademark infringement lawsuit brought by the publisher of Peloton Magazine in the Central District of California, winning summary judgment on all of plaintiff’s claims.
  • Defended wearable technology company Fitbit in trademark infringement suit brought by Fitbug in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Won summary judgment on all of plaintiff’s claims on laches grounds.
  • Defended GoPro against trade dress infringement claims in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. Won motion to dismiss on the grounds that plaintiff had failed to show protectable trade dress rights.
  • Represented AIEn USA and Industrias AIEn, one of Mexico’s leading household products companies and its U.S. subsidiary, in significant trademark dispute brought by Clorox in district court and the International Trade Commission. Matter settled favorably.
  • Represented Google before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in an opposition to a tour company’s application to register the mark SOOGLE. Won summary judgment in Google’s favor.
  • Defended Groupon in trademark infringement lawsuit brought by Groupion. Defeated preliminary injunction motion and ultimately won summary judgment of non-infringement on all of plaintiff’s claims.
  • Represented Symantec in trademark infringement suit against Comodo concerning logos used for security and authentication services. Comodo dropped its use of the disputed logo and withdrew its trademark application.
  • Represented Twitter in trademark lawsuit over third party trademark registration that infringed Twitter’s TWEET mark.
  • Represented Google before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Obtained summary judgment refusing registration of the applicant’s “FUNTOOGLE” mark.
  • Represented online shopping site in trademark infringement lawsuit against competitor, securing a settlement in which the competitor changed its name, withdrew its trademark applications and transferred its domain names to our client.
  • Represented international publisher Harlequin Enterprises in a trademark infringement, dilution and false advertising claim against a film production company in federal court in Los Angeles. After Jed filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, the defendant agreed to change its name.

Copyright Litigation

Jed has represented plaintiffs and defendants in copyright litigation across the country.

  • Successfully defended internet security company Cloudflare against contributory copyright infringement claims for providing online services to retailers who allegedly infringed copyrights in plaintiffs’ images. The court granted Cloudflare’s motion for summary judgment, concluding that no reasonable jury could find that Cloudflare materially contributed to the alleged infringement.
  • Defended Cox Communications in a two-week jury trial seeking to hold Cox liable for vicarious and contributory copyright infringement. The jury found for Cox on the vicarious copyright infringement claim. Although the jury found for BMG on the contributory infringement claim, they awarded only a fraction of the statutory damages BMG sought, and the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the trial court verdict for BMG, agreeing with Cox that the trial court gave erroneous jury instructions on the issue of contributory infringement. The case later settled.
  • Represented Chordiant Software (now part of Pegasystems), Chordiant’s CEO, and its general counsel in a copyright infringement lawsuit in federal court in San Jose, California. Chordiant had admitted that it owed plaintiffs damages for use and distribution of plaintiffs’ software products, but disputed plaintiffs’ claim to tens of millions of dollars in damages and profits. Following a two week trial, the jury returned a verdict of approximately 5% of what plaintiffs had requested. Prior to trial, we secured a voluntary dismissal for the CEO, and won summary judgment in favor of Chordiant’s former general counsel. Also defeated plaintiffs’ claims for statutory damages and attorneys’ fees.
  • Defended mobile game publisher ngmoco against claims of copyright infringement over a leading game for the iPhone. We quickly convinced the other side to drop its claims and acknowledge our client’s rights to continue distributing its game.
  • Defeated copyright infringement claims brought by IBM against Compuware in a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Michigan. The Court agreed with Compuware that IBM's claims were barred on equitable grounds and granted summary judgment in Compuware's favor.
  • Represented Symantec, BindView Development and BindView's former CEO in a copyright infringement case in federal court in San Francisco. Obtained summary judgment in favor of all defendants and defeated plaintiff's claims for fraud and breach of contract.
  • Defended Sun Microsystems and Storage Technology in a software copyright lawsuit. The court granted summary judgment for all defendants, finding that their use of the allegedly infringed software was licensed. The Court also awarded our clients attorneys’ fees after we defeated plaintiffs’ effort to revive the copyright claims in a second lawsuit.
  • Represented Brøderbund in the successful defense of a claim that an educational video game infringed plaintiff’s copyright in a children's educational television program.

Trade Secret Litigation

  • Led the defense team for a biotech company and several of its employees in a trade secrets case in the District of Colorado and at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Defeated plaintiff’s preliminary injunction motion, successfully defended that victory on appeal, and ultimately secured a dismissal of all claims.
  • Represented Symantec in a trade secret misappropriation case against a former Symantec employee and his new employer. Secured a permanent injunction requiring the return of Symantec confidential information and barring defendants’ use or disclosure of that information.
  • Successfully defended Wyse Technology in claim for breach of a nondisclosure agreement relating to “thin client” technology. After moving for summary judgment on the grounds that plaintiff itself had publicly disclosed the allegedly confidential information, plaintiff dismissed its case.
  • Served as trial counsel for Compuware in a case involving copyright, trade secret and antitrust claims. After a five-week jury trial, the case settled in Compuware's favor for $400M.
  • Represented plaintiff Flextronics in a trade secrets and breach of contract case involving fiber optic technology.
  • Successfully defended a risk modeling technology company in a trade secrets case involving wildfire risk assessment technology.

Class Action Defense

  • Defended digital content company in a consumer class action alleging violation of automatic renewal and gift certificate laws.
  • Represented social networking service in consumer class action over alleged privacy violations.
  • Successfully defended a major “daily deal” company in purported class action involving online advertising practices.
  • Represented internet travel site in a consumer class action involving booking and cancellation fee disclosures.
  • Defended digital stock photography company against purported right of publicity violations.

Complex Commercial Disputes

  • Represented GPS navigation technology company TomTom in multimillion-dollar breach of warranty case against chip maker Broadcom.
  • Represented a global IT and business consultancy company in a claim for fraud and breach of the duty of loyalty against a medical technology company and its founder. Obtained a permanent injunction barring the defendants from using any of the disputed technology.
  • Represented plaintiff Telos, a manufacturer of wireless telephone network technology, in an arbitration over a $2.4M indemnity dispute and a lawsuit involving a $19M “earnout” arising from an asset purchase agreement.
  • Represented BroadLogic Network Technologies in a multimillion-dollar commercial dispute involving satellite networking technology.
  • Represented the Game Developers Conference in a dispute with one of the company's early members concerning shareholder rights.

Right of Publicity

Jed has handled numerous disputes involving right of publicity claims, including the successful defense of a class action case against a major publisher of stock photography.

  • Amazon.com
  • Cisco Systems
  • Cloudflare
  • Cox Communications
  • Delphix
  • Facebook
  • Fitbit
  • Giganews
  • GoPro
  • Groupon
  • Peloton
  • Symantec

  • Amazon.com
  • Cisco Systems
  • Cloudflare
  • Cox Communications
  • Delphix
  • Facebook
  • Fitbit
  • Giganews
  • GoPro
  • Groupon
  • Peloton
  • Symantec

Recognition Recognition Recognition

Recognition Recognition Recognition

Recognition
World Trademark Review

2011 - 2024

Regularly recognized among the top lawyers for trademark disputes nationally and in California, and named to its 2024 Global Leaders list

Chambers USA

2024

Honored as a leading trademark, copyright & trade secrets lawyer in California

Lawdragon

2024

Recognized for Commercial, IP Litigation, and Appellate in its 500 Leading Litigators in America guide

Managing IP

2023

Named an IP Star

  • Repeatedly recognized by The Legal 500 for trademark litigation (2018 - 2023)
  • Honored by Daily Journal as a top intellectual property lawyer in California (2020)

Recognition
World Trademark Review

2011 - 2024

Regularly recognized among the top lawyers for trademark disputes nationally and in California, and named to its 2024 Global Leaders list

Chambers USA

2024

Honored as a leading trademark, copyright & trade secrets lawyer in California

Lawdragon

2024

Recognized for Commercial, IP Litigation, and Appellate in its 500 Leading Litigators in America guide

Managing IP

2023

Named an IP Star