Graham (Gray) M. Buccigross

Graham (Gray) M. Buccigross is an associate in the Intellectual Property Practice Group in the firm's Del Mar Heights and Silicon Valley offices.

Areas of Practice 

Mr. Buccigross’s practice focuses on patent litigation. He has litigated both on behalf of the party enforcing the patent and on behalf of the party defending against a patent enforcement action. These cases involved diverse subject matter, including telecommunications, recombinant growth hormones, GPS, data de-duplication, computer systems hardware, and biological assays. He has litigated patent infringement actions in various key jurisdictions, including the Northern District of California, District of New Jersey, Eastern District of Texas, Southern District of California, and on behalf of an accused infringer in the "rocket docket" Eastern District of Virginia.

Mr. Buccigross’s representative patent infringement action clients include Quantum Corporation, Mformation Technologies, Everett Laboratories, Gen-Probe Inc., Applera Corporation, Echostar Communications Corporation, Vero Systems, and Lineage Power. Mr. Buccigross also represented the University of California in litigation against the Monsanto Corporation, leading to a settlement the night before trial was set to begin, of over $200 million for a license to the UC’s patents covering bovine growth hormone. This is one of the largest biotechnology patent litigation settlements ever.

As a secondary focus, Mr. Buccigross has provided freedom-to-operate and infringement opinions relating to subject matter including pharmaceuticals, stents, and digital cameras.  He has also analyzed patent portfolios.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Buccigross was an associate in Morrison & Foerster LLP’s litigation department.  There, he obtained significant experience in trade secret/unfair competition litigation and general commercial litigation, as well as employment litigation experience.  His representative clients for actions other than patent infringement include Cytec Industries, Foley & Lardner LLP, Calpine Corporation, Brookfield Homes, and Barnes & Noble.

Drawing on his intellectual property and litigation experience, he has additionally drafted transactional documents, performed pre-litigation evaluation of contracts, and provided opinions regarding the scope of settlement agreements.

Mr. Buccigross graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he received an award for his brief writing.  During law school, he interned and externed for the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General.  He received his B.S. in Biology from the University of California at San Diego, with highest honors.  While there, he initially majored in computer science, completing coursework in computer programming, electrical engineering, advanced mathematics, and physics for engineers.

Education

• J.D., Harvard Law School, 2004, cum laude
• B.S., Biology, University of California, San Diego, 2001, summa cum laude, Significant additional coursework in computer science. Recipient of the Biology Outstanding Achievement Award, teaching assistant in the Biology Department, and recipient of the Phi Beta Kappa scholarship for graduate study

Admissions

• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• California
• United States District Court, Northern District of California
• United States District Court, Southern District of California

Representative Litigation

Mformation Technologies, Inc. v. Research in Motion, Ltd. (“RIM”). As lead associate, represented Mformation in its patent infringement suit accusing RIM’s BlackBerry devices and related software of infringing Mformation’s patents relating to remote management of wireless devices.

Quantum Corp. v. Riverbed Technologies, Inc.  Represented plaintiff and cross-defendant Quantum in multiple patent infringement lawsuits against Riverbed regarding data storage products that utilize data de-duplication technology.  Served as lead associate on one of the lawsuits.  The matters were resolved in a very favorable global settlement for Quantum. 

Telarix, Inc. v. Vero Systems, Inc.  Represented defendant in a patent infringement suit regarding software for least-cost routing of international telephone calls.  Settled very favorably.

Trimble Navigation Ltd. v. RHS Inc. et al.  Represented Hemisphere GPS in a patent infringement suit brought against Hemisphere by Trimble Navigation Ltd., and involving automatically steering agricultural machinery using GPS technology.  The Court granted Hemisphere’s motion for summary judgment of noninfringement, ending the case.

[Case name omitted.]  As sole associate on the case, represented an aerospace manufacturer in a trade secret matter filed against a former employee and his subsequent employer – a primary competitor.  Obtained a temporary restraining order against the former employee  and the competitor.  Subsequently obtained computer forensic evidence that the 28-year employee (an engineer) stole vital company trade secrets by copying the contents of his work computer onto an external hard drive, and attempted to destroy the evidence.  When confronted with this evidence during his deposition, and to his counsel’s apparent surprise, the employee fully admitted wrongdoing.  Shortly thereafter, the competitor terminated the employee, the court entered a permanent injunction, and the case settled on terms very favorable to the client.