Alan H. MacPherson (August 10, 1934, Calais, Maine, United States - December 8, 2008, Laguna Beach, California, United States) was an American patent attorney based in California that many considered to be the "dean of patent law" in the Bay Area.[1] MacPherson was born in Depression-era Maine (specifically, Calais, Maine) on August 10, 1934.[2] He received a full scholarship to attend Stanford University, where in 1956 he obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, supplementing his tuition by working in the gold and silver mines of Alaska and Idaho.[3] Then, he obtained his Master of Science degree, also in Mechanical Engineering, from MIT. He held technical positions at Space Technology Laboratories in Redondo Beach, California, Dynamic Analysis and Control Laboratory at MIT and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in East Hartford, Connecticut before attending Harvard Law School. In 1964, MacPherson received his Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School.
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MacPherson began his career as patent counsel at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Then, he moved to California to become one of the first patent attorneys at Fairchild Semiconductor, when it was still known as "Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation" and before it split off into National Semiconductor and other semiconductor companies.
In 1980, MacPherson founded the IP Group of Skjerven Morrill MacPherson LLP and served as the firm's chairman. Skjerven went on to become one of the leading patent and IP boutique law firms in Silicon Valley, riding the wave of the dot-com boom and serving as one of major "go-to" firms for Silicon Valley companies such as NEC, AMD, SanDisk, Mosel Vitelic Corporation and Xilinx, all of whom were clients of MacPherson. In 2003, the firm dissolved.
In 2002, one year before Skjerven folded, the Skjerven partnership voted to replace MacPherson, citing differences over the direction of the firm.[1] The breakup was complicated, as it involved a suit filed by MacPherson against his former partners.
One year before Skjerven folded, MacPherson left to start his own firm with offices in San Jose, California and Irvine, California, MacPherson Kwok Chen & Heid LLP. According to several commentators, MacPherson's status as a legendary rainmaker and his departure from Skjerven (bringing his clients and large book of business with him to his new firm) quickly led to the downfall of Skjerven.[4] In early 2009, MacPherson Kwok Chen & Heid LLP merged with Texas-based law firm Haynes and Boone LLP.
MacPherson co-founded Intellectual Property Acquisitions, Inc. with Dr. Nicola Orsini in late 2002 and served as its non-executive chairman. He also served as Chief IP Strategist at Scintera Networks, Inc., a high speed communications semiconductor company.
MacPherson is also credited as having pioneered the "clean room" defense when he represented NEC in an IP lawsuit against Intel in the early 1980s.[1] In the suit, Intel alleged that NEC stole and infringed its programming in its microprocessors, or "microcode". To rebut this accusation, MacPherson gave an independent engineer the task of programming an IC (Integrated Circuit) to do the same thing as the NEC and Intel Chips, but cutting off all access to any previously written microcode - in other words, simulating clean room conditions.[1] After the engineer completed the task, experts concluded that the similarities between the microcode was not because of copying but due to the intrinsic constraints of programming microcode.[1]
MacPherson died on December 8, 2008. He has taught and mentored several generations of IP and patent attorneys practicing in California today. His passion for the law and for life was legendary, as can be evidenced by the fact that even in his late 60's he set mythical records of billing more than 3,000 hours a year and also climbed Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro.[1]
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