Mr. Akiba is special counsel in the firm's Patent Prosecution & Counseling Group and head of the firm's affiliated office in Tokyo, Japan. He has broad experience in the area of patent enforcement, defense, licensing and litigation.
Mr. Akiba worked in the Intellectual Property Office, Hitachi, Ltd. from 1990-2004 and the Intellectual Property Division, Renesas Technology Corp. from 2004-2005. During this period, he was in charge of various activities related to patent enforcement involving semiconductor technology. While at Hitachi and Renesas, Mr. Akiba was involved in all aspects of patent licensing and enforcement including infringement analysis, validity analysis and licensing negotiations with numerous semiconductor companies in Japan, other parts of Asia and the United States. He also has experience in litigation both in Japan and the US including invalidiation trials before the Japanese Patent Office and ITC proceedings in the US. He has also handled numerous defense cases involving infringement analysis and validity analysis of patents for plaintiffs and defendants. During the period of 2001-2005, he was assigned as manager of the Hitachi patent group with primary responsibility for patent enforcement and defense.
Mr. Akiba has had extensive legal training both in Japan and the US. He is admitted as a patent attorney in Japan and to the New York State Bar.