PROFILES


Jim Wu, Partner, Attorney, JW Law Group
Bill Alford, Of Counsel, JW Law Group


James M. Wu
Partner, Attorney, JW Law Group

Experience
Jim Wu has over 12 years of experience focusing primarily in the area of patent procurement, international and domestic IP counseling, IP/business strategy, portfolio management, technology transfer, patent analysis and patent litigation. Jim has assisted many multinational clients with various aspects of intellectual property rights in the United States as well as in Asia.

Jim has authored over 300 patent applications with various different technologies, such as computer architectures, microprocessors, circuits, semiconductors, computer networking, storage/memory devices, commercial electronic devices, display technologies, packaging, fabrication techniques, control systems, network communications, medical instruments, RF technologies, wireless communications and devices, graphic display, haptics, optics, LEDs, and software related inventions.

Before founding JW Law Group, Jim was an attorney at several U.S. based international and domestic law firms (White & Case, Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner, Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman). Jim also worked as an in-house IP attorney for a leading programmable logic device (PLD) semiconductor company.

Prior to his legal career, Jim was a design engineer at IBM for more than eight years, where he was involved in designing microprocessors for various IBM products. Before joining IBM, Jim also worked as an engineer at GE aerospace division implementing real-time engine control system.

Education
William Mitchell College of Law (J.D., 1997)
University of Washington (B.S.E.E., with honors, 1988)

Admissions
California
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
United States District Court, Northern District of California
United States Patent & Trademark Office

Languages
English, Chinese


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Bill Alford
Of Counsel, JW Law Group

Experience
Bill Alford specializes in intellectual property law including prosecuting patent and trademark applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Additionally, Mr. Alford drafts technology contracts and negotiates licenses on behalf of his clients. Mr. Alford provides litigation assistance, counseling, opinions regarding patents, trademarks, & copyrights; and performs due diligence investigations.

Having an electrical engineering background, Mr. Alford has successfully prepared and prosecuted patent applications in a wide range of technological fields such as computer electronics and mechanics, software, and networking. He has successfully protected and expanded the intellectual property rights of numerous Fortune 500 companies.

Mr. Alford was previously a partner at the intellectual property law firms of Orion Law Group, PLC and Blakely, Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman LLP. Furthermore, Mr. Alford served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for MetaSoftware, Inc. and Corporate Counsel for Avant! Corp. drafting and negotiating license agreements. Mr. Alford additionally was a patent agent for Cirrus Logic drafting patent applications and filing applications for patents, copyrights and Maskwork registrations.

Before becoming an attorney, Mr. Alford was a Integrated Circuit Design Engineer responsible for designing custom integrated circuits (IC) for various applications and components, including a RISC processor, an echo canceller, an FIR filter, a digital correlator, flash A/D converter, SRAM, ROM and various other custom CMOS circuit elements. Mr. Alford was previously employed by Western Digital, Rockwell International (Conextant), GE-RCA Semiconductor, and TRW LSI Products to design circuits.

Education
Mr. Alford received a Juris Doctor degree from Santa Clara University in 1995, a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Southern California in 1989, a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine in 1984, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine in 1982, where he graduated cum laude.

Admissions
Mr. Alford is admitted to practice in California and the Northern and Southern Districts of California. In addition, he is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.


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