Of Counsel
(650) 567-3350
daniel@vpaclaw.com

Mr. Hopen has over fifteen years of legal experience in the intellectual property arena and has served in a rich variety of capacities and roles.

Mr. Hopen spent the first part of his career at the United States International Trade Commission as a staff attorney handling Section 337 cases, where he reviewed determinations made by the Administrative Law Judges.

As in-house counsel, Mr. Hopen managed company patent programs and worldwide IP portfolios in line with company business objectives.  Mr. Hopen worked with inventors to identify important and innovative technologies necessitating patent protection, interfaced with outside counsel to ensure proper patent filings, and secured broad patent protection for inventions.

As outside counsel, Mr. Hopen prepared and prosecuted patent applications in a wide variety of technologies, including those in the electronic, electrical, and mechanical arts.  Furthermore, Mr. Hopen analyzed infringement matters and responded to demand letters.

Mr. Hopen has also prepared licensing agreements, assisted with litigation, and filed trademark and copyright applications.

Representative Technologies

• Storage Systems and Software for Large Data
• Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology, specifically copper interconnect processing including CMP, ECMP, ECD, and ECMD.
• Host Bus Adapters, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel.
• Digital Electronics, Microprocessors and Circuit Architectures
• Disk Drives, FLASH EPROMs, Interactive TV, and MPEG coding
• Software Systems, and related arts

Bar Admissions

State Bar of California, 1996
State Bar of Texas, 1990
Registered Patent Attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, 1991

Education

Juris Doctor, Seattle University of Law
B.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Washington