IP, technology and business law for companies that build things — from chips to agents.
Patent prosecution and portfolio strategy, technology transactions, and the business counsel a technology company needs along the way. One attorney, who spent eleven years at Intel bringing the 486 and Pentium processors into production before he began practicing law.
What I do
The work falls into four areas. Most clients need more than one of them, often in the same month.
- Patents
- Drafting and prosecuting complex patent applications in the United States, and coordinating with foreign counsel to secure international protection where it matters, backed by the electrical engineering and computer science depth to protect integrated hardware, firmware and software architectures within a single specification.
- Core technologies: the entire compute continuum — from semiconductors, microprocessors and FPGAs to embedded systems, machine learning pipelines, complex computational processes and enterprise cloud software
- Prosecution and advocacy: end-to-end U.S. prosecution and coordinated international filings, including examiner interviews, PTAB appeals and post-grant proceedings
- Strategic counseling: global portfolio architecture, competitive landscape analysis, and freedom-to-operate, non-infringement and validity opinions
- Technology transactions
- Agreements that put IP to work and keep ownership clear as products move from concept to market.
- Licenses, assignments and joint development agreements
- Development, supply and services agreements
- Open-source and AI model licensing terms
- IP diligence for financings and acquisitions
- Business law for technology companies
- Day-to-day counsel for founders and engineering-led companies, so legal questions get answered before they become problems.
- Commercial contracts and terms of service
- Founder, contractor and advisor IP arrangements
- Confidentiality and trade-secret programs
- Outside general counsel on an as-needed basis
- Disputes
- Pre-suit analysis, demand letters, licensing negotiations and post-grant proceedings, and coordination with litigation counsel when a matter goes to court.
- Infringement and invalidity analysis
- Inter partes review and ex parte reexamination
- Settlement and license negotiation
- EducationBS, Electrical Engineering, Columbia Engineering
JD, Santa Clara University School of Law
MBAs, Columbia Business School and London Business School (joint program) - AdmittedState Bar of California
United States Patent and Trademark Office
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit - MeetingsBy Zoom anywhere in California. In person by arrangement.
Alex Witkowski
Alex is a patent attorney who was an engineer first. He joined Intel in 1988 and spent six years in product development on the Intel386, 486 and Pentium processors — silicon debug, design and manufacturability verification, wafer-sort and package test — and was the first person to operate the original Pentium on first silicon. Intel then sponsored him through law school, and for five years he drafted and prosecuted the company's patents in microprocessor architecture, computer hardware and software, and semiconductor process technology.
He has run his own practice since 2008, prosecuting hardware, software and business-method applications and advising startups and established companies on IP strategy and the business decisions around it. A stint as a patent examiner at the USPTO gives him a working sense of how an application is read on the other side of the desk. Two MBAs, from a joint Columbia and London Business School program, inform the business side of the counsel.
The result is analysis and advice that bring together the technical, legal and business perspectives: grounded in how the technology works and what the company is trying to do with it, not only in how an invention is described in a specification.
Selected patents
Drafted and prosecuted for clients, and earlier for Intel.
- US 11,112,965 Text input error correction
- US 10,437,564 Object mapping and conversion system
- US 10,373,386 Virtually trying on clothing
- US 10,127,717 3D clothing model creation
- US 12,398,784 Rotary speed reducer
- US 8,417,698 Search based on social graphs and affinity groups
- US 8,296,812 Streaming video using erasure encoding
- US 8,135,061 Variable bit rate encoding
- US 8,498,808 Hybrid routing using breadcrumb paths
- US 7,725,343 Activity-based cost modeling
- US 5,898,610 Bit cell ground choking for improved memory write margin
- US 6,032,278 Method and apparatus for performing scan testing
- US 5,862,067 High numerical accuracy with MMX instructions
- US 5,840,448 Phase shifting mask
Get in touch
A first conversation is confidential and without obligation. Say what you are building and what you need; a reply usually comes the same business day.
New clients: use the intake button — it opens Clio, the firm's secure intake system, and takes about five minutes. Or email alex@witkowskilaw.com. Please do not include confidential technical details in a first message; an engagement begins only after a conflict check and a signed engagement letter.
- Emailalex@witkowskilaw.com
- Phone650‑488‑4500 (voice and fax)
- OfficeWitkowski Law
4546 El Camino Real B10 # 1020
Los Altos, CA 94022 - HoursMon–Fri 9 am–6 pm; other times by appointment
- MeetingsMost meetings are held by Zoom: private, efficient, and no commute. A first meeting can be in person by arrangement.
- Service areaClients across California. Bay Area: Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco and Alameda counties. Southern California: Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.