Peter E. Gratzinger

Peter E. Gratzinger

Peter Gratzinger is of counsel and focuses his practice on intellectual property and antitrust disputes in high technology industries.

He has represented clients in a wide range of sectors, including software, semiconductors, entertainment and pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Gratzinger maintains an active pro bono practice and has provided pro bono representation in various cases involving immigration, First Amendment law, election law and other issues. He has been honored with Public Counsel’s 2025 Pro Bono Award for work on foster youth issues in Los Angeles County and the ACLU’s Criminal Justice Award for his work challenging the constitutionality of jail informant policies.

Mr. Gratzinger is on the Board of Managers of the Ketchum Downtown YMCA, a non-profit serving the downtown Los Angeles community, and helps to organize the annual YMCA Los Angeles Stair Climb fundraiser. In his free time, Mr. Gratzinger enjoys coaching and refereeing AYSO soccer matches. He is a former adjunct professor of internet law at Pepperdine Law School.

Experience

Patent Litigation 

  • Google and Intel in patent disputes in the Eastern District of Texas, Western District of Texas and Northern District of California.
  • Kite Pharma, Inc., a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences, in a trial and appeal at the Federal Circuit in a multibillion-dollar case involving the cancer treatment drug Yescarta®, resulting in the invalidation of the patent asserted against Kite.
  • Amgen in defending against allegations of patent infringement relating to its bevacizumab (Mvasi®) and trastuzumab (Kanjinti®) biosimilars.
  • PNC Bank, one of the largest banks in the U.S., in limiting the damages awarded in multiple patent infringement lawsuits filed by United Services Automobile Association (USAA) in the Eastern District of Texas relating to its remote check deposit patent portfolio.

Complex Commercial Litigation 

  • AbbVie Inc. in successfully preventing the certification of class actions by third-party payers and wholesalers of the drug Niaspan, and in a related case brought by the Orange County District Attorney on behalf of California drug purchasers, alleging “sham” settlements of patent infringement suits to prevent generic drugs from entering the market.
  • Lyft, Inc. in multiple actions regarding classification of rideshare drivers and arbitration, including in the California Court of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit.
  • Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary ABC in a copyright and trade secret action brought by CBS alleging that the ABC reality program “The Glass House” infringed on the copyrights to the CBS reality program “Big Brother.” MTO opposed a temporary restraining order seeking to enjoin the program; CBS later dropped its case.

Publications

  • “After O2 Micro: The Court’s Evolving Duty to Map Words to Things,” Santa Clara High Technology Journal, Vol. 32, Issue 2, p. 141, 2016
  • “Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants,” California Business Litigation handbook, 2016
  • Author, “Was the Telescope Obvious? An Inquiry into Simultaneous Invention,” The Columbia Science and Technology Law Review, 13, No. 1, Feb. 2012
  • Co-Author, “Machines and Transformations: The Past, Present, and Future Patentability of Software,” Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, 8, Issue. 2, p. 247, 2010

Practice Areas

Industries

Education

  • Stanford Law School (J.D., with honors, 2003)

  • New York University (M.A., 2001)

  • UC Berkeley (B.S., 1998)

Bar Admissions

  • California

Experience

Patent Litigation 

  • Google and Intel in patent disputes in the Eastern District of Texas, Western District of Texas and Northern District of California.
  • Kite Pharma, Inc., a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences, in a trial and appeal at the Federal Circuit in a multibillion-dollar case involving the cancer treatment drug Yescarta®, resulting in the invalidation of the patent asserted against Kite.
  • Amgen in defending against allegations of patent infringement relating to its bevacizumab (Mvasi®) and trastuzumab (Kanjinti®) biosimilars.
  • PNC Bank, one of the largest banks in the U.S., in limiting the damages awarded in multiple patent infringement lawsuits filed by United Services Automobile Association (USAA) in the Eastern District of Texas relating to its remote check deposit patent portfolio.

Complex Commercial Litigation 

  • AbbVie Inc. in successfully preventing the certification of class actions by third-party payers and wholesalers of the drug Niaspan, and in a related case brought by the Orange County District Attorney on behalf of California drug purchasers, alleging “sham” settlements of patent infringement suits to prevent generic drugs from entering the market.
  • Lyft, Inc. in multiple actions regarding classification of rideshare drivers and arbitration, including in the California Court of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit.
  • Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary ABC in a copyright and trade secret action brought by CBS alleging that the ABC reality program “The Glass House” infringed on the copyrights to the CBS reality program “Big Brother.” MTO opposed a temporary restraining order seeking to enjoin the program; CBS later dropped its case.

Publications

  • “After O2 Micro: The Court’s Evolving Duty to Map Words to Things,” Santa Clara High Technology Journal, Vol. 32, Issue 2, p. 141, 2016
  • “Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants,” California Business Litigation handbook, 2016
  • Author, “Was the Telescope Obvious? An Inquiry into Simultaneous Invention,” The Columbia Science and Technology Law Review, 13, No. 1, Feb. 2012
  • Co-Author, “Machines and Transformations: The Past, Present, and Future Patentability of Software,” Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, 8, Issue. 2, p. 247, 2010

Practice Areas

Industries

Education

  • Stanford Law School (J.D., with honors, 2003)

  • New York University (M.A., 2001)

  • UC Berkeley (B.S., 1998)

Bar Admissions

  • California