IP lawyers Pan Lee and Don Wang have joined Venable’s IP litigation and technology practice in San Francisco, marking four IP counsel moves from IP and antitrust specialists Axinn Veltrop & Harkride in the last month.

The duo will be reunited with partners Jeannine Yoo Sano and Eric Krause, who joined the San Francisco practice on 10 March; they all previously worked together on high-stakes patent and trade secret litigation matters at Axinn.

After spending five yeas at Axinn, Lee joins as counsel. Wong joins as an associate after nearly four years at Axinn.

Lee has 15 years of experience handling IP matters for global technology companies in a variety of fields, including wireless communications, video streaming, semiconductor fabrication, mobile applications and 3D rendering. 

Michael Sandonato, a co-chair of the firm’s IP litigation and technology group, said Lee is a “strategic thinker with extensive experience litigating intellectual property disputes involving advanced technologies”. 

He continued: “He is a valuable addition to our dynamic team of IP attorneys in the San Francisco office and for the clients we serve nationally.”

Commenting on his move, Lee said: “Venable’s national presence, full scope of client services and collaborative culture attracted me to the firm. I look forward to reuniting with Jeannine and Eric and getting to work with the talented attorneys in Venable’s IP group.”

Before Axinn, he was an associate at Fenwick & West and White & Case and began his career as an electrical engineer in the research and development arm of a global security and aerospace company.

He has managed litigation strategy in district court patent cases, more than 300 investigations conducted by the International Trade Commission when imported goods are suspected of infringing IP rights, and inter partes review and post-grant review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, as well as appeals to the Federal Circuit.

He has also advised clients on design-around strategies, patent portfolio management and coordination of parallel international litigations.

Before Axinn, Wong was an associate at White & Case. He holds a J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law and a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto.

Partners Sano and Krause joined earlier in the month. Sano is a first-chair trial lawyer with more than 30 years of experience handling patent and trade secret trials and appeals in technology fields such as mobile communications, video processing, medtech and semiconductor manufacturing.

Krause also leads patent and trade secret cases concerning technology ranging from semiconductor fabrication and design to internet of things and cloud computing.