Alan Heinrich is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Irell & Manella LLP and a member of the firm’s litigation, intellectual property litigation and appellate groups.  Mr. Heinrich’s practice focuses on complex business and intellectual property litigation at both the trial court and appellate court levels.  Mr. Heinrich has been recognized by Chambers & Partners as "Up and Coming" in the area of intellectual property law in the 2008 Chambers USA Leading Lawyers for Business Guide.  In 2006 and 2007, Mr. Heinrich was selected for inclusion in Los Angeles Magazine's Southern California "Rising Stars" in intellectual property litigation.

Mr. Heinrich earned his J.D., summa cum laude, from Loyola Law School in 2000, where he was valedictorian of his class and chief articles editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review.  In 2000–2001, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Portland, Oregon.  Mr. Heinrich received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Washington and Lee University and a Ph.D. in Classics from the State University of New York at Buffalo.  Upon completion of his Ph.D., he was a lecturer at the University of Southern California, where he taught courses in Latin and Ancient Greek.  Mr. Heinrich has also taught Federal Courts as an adjunct professor of law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California.

Representative Matters

Immersion Corporation v. Sony Computer Entertainment and Microsoft Corporation (N.D. Cal.): Represented Immersion in a patent infringement suit alleging that various PlayStation and Xbox video game products infringe two Immersion patents relating to tactile feedback technology.  In July 2003, Microsoft settled with Immersion for approximately $35 million.  In September 2004, after a five-week trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Immersion, finding all asserted patent claims valid and infringed and awarding $82 million in damages.  Mr. Heinrich also represented Immersion in patent litigation against Electro Source, LLC, which settled successfully in February 2006.

Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. v. Dudas (E.D. Va.): Represented intervenor Immersion Corporation in a case of first impression involving the Patent and Trademark Office's discretion to suspend an inter partes reexamination under the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999.  Sony brought suit after the PTO granted Immersion's petitions to suspend reexamination proceedings that Sony initiated following Immersion's successful patent infringement action in federal district court.  The court upheld the PTO's suspension order, granting summary judgment in favor of Immersion and the PTO.  The PTO has cited the district court's decision as authoritative precedent in the latest edition of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure.

Avago Technologies Ltd. v. PixArt Imaging, Inc. (N.D. Cal.): Represented Avago Technologies Ltd., the world's largest privately-held semiconductor company, in a patent infringement case involving optical mouse technology.  The accused products were PixArt's CMOS optical navigation sensors for optical mouse applications.  The case settled successfully for Avago.

Avago Technologies Ltd. v. Elan Microelectronics Corp. (N.D. Cal.): Represents Avago in a patent infringement case involving optical mouse technology.  The accused products are Elan's CMOS optical navigation sensors for optical mouse applications.

Net2Phone, Inc. v. Skype Technologies S.A., Skype, Inc. and eBay Inc. (D.N.J.):  Represents Skype, a world-leading Voice over Internet communications company, and its parent eBay in a patent infringement case involving computer networking technology.  The accused product is Skype's pioneering VoIP software.

Peer Communications Corp. v. Skype Technologies S.A., Skype, Inc. and eBay Inc. (E.D. Tex.):  Represents Skype, a world-leading Voice over Internet communications company, and its parent eBay in a patent infringement case brought by a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation.  The accused product is Skype's pioneering VoIP software.

Forterra Systems, Inc. v. IMVU, Inc. (N.D. Cal.): Represented IMVU in a patent infringement suit involving three-dimensional multi-user internet chat technology.  The case successfully settled for IMVU after the district court issued a claim construction order that substantially adopted all of IMVU's proposed claim constructions, followed by a favorable action by the U.S. Patent Office preliminarily rejecting all of Forterra's asserted claims in an inter partes reexamination instituted by IMVU.

Interplay Inc. v. Citicorp Real Estate, Inc. (L.A. Sup. Ct.): Represented Citicorp Real Estate on plaintiff's claims for misappropriation of trade secrets and other state law tort claims. In 2002, the court granted CREI's motion for nonsuit at trial and entered judgment in favor of CREI. Mr. Heinrich argued the appeal, in which the judgment for CREI was affirmed in all respects.

Natural Resources Defense Council et al. v. Donald C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy, et al. (C.D. Cal.):  Represented, as part of a team of attorneys from Irell & Manella LLP and the Natural Resources Defense Council, plaintiff environmental organizations in a series of successful challenges to the Navy's use of environmentally harmful high-intensity sonar, resulting in the issuance of court orders providing for injunctive relief against the Navy for its violation of U.S. environmental laws. 

Ixia v. Alumnus Software Ltd. (L.A. Sup. Ct.): Represented third-party Agilent Technologies, Inc. in obtaining a restrictive protective order that effectively halted an inspection of computer files in India that threatened to disclose Agilent's trade secrets.

Bar & Court Admissions

• 2001, California
• 2001, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
• 2002, U.S. District Court, Central and Northern Districts of California
• 2005, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit