Daniel C. Minteer is a trial lawyer who represents clients in a broad range of matters before state and federal courts and numerous arbitration services throughout the country. A substantial part of his practice involves intellectual property litigation. This emphasis has also led to a substantial practice dealing with restructuring technology companies. His trial practice includes the following subject matters: patent, trademark, copyright, trade dress, antitrust, unfair competition, class actions, securities, technology licensing, education, real estate, construction, corporate governance, FDA compliance, banking, software and medical testing. He has been involved in numerous trials in state and federal courts in front of both juries and judges. He also devotes a substantial amount of time helping clients devise strategies to avoid litigation in the first place.
He has served on the Board of Governors of the San Diego Chapter of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. He has served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association. Mr. Minteer has served as a member of the American Bar Association and San Diego County Bar Association. He is a current member of the San Diego Intellectual Property Lawyers Association and San Diego Connect.
Mr. Minteer has served a three-year term on the State Bar Judicial Nominees Commission, which evaluates candidates for judicial appointment throughout the State of California. This Commission evaluates candidates for judicial appointment in California pursuant to a statute that requires the governor to obtain this evaluation before appointing a candidate to the bench. This includes all state trial and appellate judges. He is a former delegate to the State Bar Conference of Delegates. He is past President of the San Diego Junior Chamber of Commerce.
He has lectured on a wide range of legal topics, including claim construction, developments in patent litigation, basic patent litigation strategy, general litigation and restructuring strategy.
Mr. Minteer also has extensive business experience. He served as a vice president of Fox Engineering, a manufacturing company, for six years. He served as the managing partner of the San Diego office of a national law firm for 10 years. He has also served on that firm's Executive Committee, which was responsible for the overall management of the firm. He presently is responsible for the San Diego office's intellectual property group. This background enables Mr. Minteer to understand the client's business objectives as well as the client's legal concerns.
Mr. Minteer obtained his J.D. degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1974. He served as an Associate Editor of the U.C.L.A. Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif (an academic honor society). He is a member of the State Bar of California and the American Bar Association.
Representative Matters
Represented Quest Diagnostics in the sale of a stream of royalty revenue from commercialization of the drug candidate Ibrutinib to Royalty Pharma for $485 million in cash.
Represented a large telecommunications company in defending patent infringement and trade dress claims involving 11 utility patents dealing primarily with the electrical circuitry of the accused phone and design patents covering the design of the accused mobile radio telephone. The case included TRO and Preliminary Injunction hearings, a motion to consolidate, and 11 Markman proceedings. The plaintiff submitted a satisfactory settlement proposal during the summary judgment phase, which was accepted.
Represented a plaintiff software designer in a breach of license arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association. The claims asserted also included copyright infringement. The matter ended in an arbitration award in favor of our client.
Represented an automotive supplier in the defense of a patent infringement claim based on a patent allegedly covering a particular process for injection molding of plastic. This matter involved complex indemnity and co-defendant issues in addition to the more traditional infringement and invalidity issues.
Represented an equipment manufacturer in connection with a series of patent infringement claims. Each claim was resolved without litigation and without payment of any license fees.
Represented a large European chemical company in connection with a trial de novo following a favorable interference ruling from the Patent & Trademark Office. The case involved a priority of invention and reduction to practice issues.
Worked with several companies in connection with a patent infringement claim against companies practicing a particular standard. These cases presented numerous issues beyond issues of infringement and validity, including the alleged duty of parties participating in standards committees to disclose their respective IP positions.
Represented a computer component manufacturer in federal court and before the International Trade Commission regarding patent infringement claims. This case related to the technology involved in how computers upscale data sent for one screen size to a computer with a larger screen. The matter involved proceedings before the ITC where the action was resolved
Represented numerous companies in the recordation of patent, trademark, and copyright assignments, normally in connection with securitized financings.
Represented an educational institution in a trademark infringement case. The case resulted in a permanent injunction being issued against the defendant and the defendant paid our client's fees and costs.
Represented a major automobile retailer in a trademark infringement case we filed on its behalf. The defendant ceased using our client's trademark to resolve the matter.
Represented an educational institution in connection with the misappropriation of the school's trademark. We assisted the client in obtaining a registered trademark and pursuing those who misappropriated our client's trademark.
Represented a healthcare company in an action to protect its trademark from an infringing name. The defendant paid a substantial sum and changed its name to resolve the matter.
Represented venture banks and other companies in a wide variety of intellectual property based financial restructurings, investment enforcement proceedings and bankruptcy proceedings. Incorporated handling a substantial number of intellectual property sales and licensing transactions. Deep experience with the rights of intellectual property licensees and licensors under 11 U.S.C. 365(n).
Represented clients in a wide range of intellectual property issues, including ownership of inventions and copyrighted works, rights under a wide range of licensing arrangements, programs to strengthen trademark rights and the establishment of corporate procedures to reduce risk on unintentional copyright or trademark infringement.
Represented the owner of a business in defending a claim that the plaintiff was a 50% owner. The case went to trial and judgment was entered in favor of our client, the owner.
Represented an insurer in defending a property damage claim under the insurance policy. The case went to trial and judgment was entered in favor of our client, the insurer.
Represented the official sanctioning organizations for professional racquetball in an antitrust action involving its policy for designating its "official ball." The case was vigorously contested, even after the plaintiff filed a bankruptcy petition. We were successful in getting our client dismissed without having to pay anything in settlement.
Represented the lender in a lender liability lawsuit arising from a bankruptcy precipitated by the lender's refusal to renew the company's secured lines of credit. We won the case on a motion for summary judgment. The ruling on appeal established that a plaintiff could not recover non-economic losses in California lender liability cases. We handled the underlying bankruptcy by proposing and implementing a plan of reorganization.
Represented the defendant in a RICO claim asserted against the defendant and developer of a large multi-use real estate development in San Diego. The case presented unusual issues regarding the standing of the plaintiff and the scope of the RICO statute. We prevailed in getting our client dismissed without any contribution from our client.
Represented a defendant in connection with multiple fraud claims arising from a series of limited partnership investments in properties acquired from a bank REO department. Our client was served shortly before one of the cases was scheduled for trial. This case involved the alleged responsibility of a lender to the investors of its alleged joint venture partner. The plaintiffs also alleged the lender made direct representations to individual investors. The legal issues revolved around the applicability of the D'Oench Duhme doctrine and the scope of civil RICO. We successfully moved to continue the trial. We were able to jump into the case and get our client dismissed from the case without any contribution by our client.
Represented a group of Norwegian companies that were defrauded in connection with a complex loan scheme whereby certain Hong Kong and Canadian companies offered to lend the Norwegian companies funds at a favorable rate provided the funds were secured by a letter of credit. The Hong Kong company called the letters of credit and the Norwegian companies lost in excess of $15,000,000. After settlement negotiations failed we brought an action in California for fraud and constructive trust. The case involved bankruptcy proceedings in Hong Kong, jurisdictional issues, choice of law issues and complex factual issues regarding the letters of credit. We achieved a recovery satisfactory to our client.
Represented the owner of a large professional sports facility in connection with a dispute over a joint venture/purchase agreement that our client wanted to close. We were successful in getting the defendants to complete the purchase of the facility from our client.
Represented a stockbroker in a series of lawsuits and arbitrations brought by a number of his former clients against him and a major brokerage firm. Plaintiffs alleged a particular leveraged bond fund investment was not suitable for these plaintiffs and that the risks were not adequately explained. We tried a number of NASD arbitrations before we were able to convince the plaintiffs to settle the remaining matters on terms acceptable to the defendants.
Represented a number of defendants in a class action brought by a well-known class action lawyer who asserted that the packaging of wine contained lead and it lacked the required warning label. We prevailed on a demurrer to the complaint without leave to amend.
Represented the largest secured creditor in connection with the foreclosure and subsequent bankruptcy of a multi-building office/restaurant complex. The loan amount exceeded $140,000,000. The developer resisted the appointment of a receiver and when the receiver became inevitable, the developer filed under Chapter 11 and attempted a cram down with very low values. We promptly sought and received relief from the stay to proceed with our foreclosure action, and the property was sold at a bankruptcy sale. At the time, that sale was the second largest real estate transaction in San Diego County history. This matter raised a whole host of state law collection, bankruptcy, and real estate transaction issues, particularly since the real estate collateral consisted of most, but not all, of the mixed-use development.
Represented the largest unsecured creditor and later the creditor's committee in Chapter 11 proceeding. This case established a number of precedents, including the availability of jury trials in adversary proceedings, procedures for interim distribution to creditors and procedures for resolving potential toxic waste claims through principles of equitable subordination.
Represented the lender with over $50,000,000 in loans to a real estate syndicator and a number of its partnerships. Issues dealt with during this representation included loan workouts of individual partnerships all over the United States with many debt and equity tiers, analysis of potential fraud claims, dealing with large investor groups, protecting "holder in due course" status and dealing with a multi-committee bankruptcy pending in New York.
Represented the secured lender in connection with the foreclosure of preferred ship mortgages on three modern purse seining tuna boats. The sums involved exceeded $36,000,000. We filed collection actions in the District Court of Guam. The borrower filed counter-claims against the lender and also filed bankruptcy petitions on the island of Saipan. Two of the boats were seized by the U.S. Marshal in Guam. The third was eventually found and seized by New Zealand authorities. The debtor attempted to convince the bankruptcy court that it should be permitted to fish the boats during the bankruptcy proceedings. We convinced the court that the boats should be sold and obtained relief from the automatic stay for that purpose. Thereafter, we assisted in the foreclosure process and liquidated the lender's collateral.
Represented a lender involved in a tax shelter program who secured a $7,000,000 loan with four purse seine tuna boats that were still in the shipyard waiting commissioning. The total construction cost for the four boats exceeded $50,000,000. We caused the arrest of the boats in San Diego, Canada, and American Samoa. The Mexican government claimed it had advanced over $50,000,000 towards the construction of the boats and claimed a senior lien under Mexican law. The claim of the Mexican government went to trial in San Diego and the court ruled in our client's favor. We also won relief from the automatic stay so we could proceed with our foreclosure actions.
Intellectual Property
General Litigation
Admissions
- California
- U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Education
- University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, J.D., 1974
Associate Editor, U.C.L.A. Law Review
Order of the Coif - San Diego State University, B.A., high honors, 1971
Experience
- Duane Morris LLP
- Partner, 2005-present - Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
- Partner, 1974-2005
Professional Activities
- American Bar Association
- San Diego County Bar Association
- American Arbitration Association
- San Diego Chapter of the Association of Trial Lawyers
- Member, Board of Governors - State Bar of California
- Conference of Delegates
-- Former Delegate
- Judicial Nominees Commission
-- Former Member
- Financial Disputes Committee
-- Former Chair
Honors and Awards
- Identified as a top lawyer practicing in the area of Intellectual Property Litigation in San Diego, California by LexisNexis and San Diego Magazine, March 2013.
- AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell®
Civic and Charitable Activities
- San Diego Junior Chamber of Commerce
- Former President
Selected Speaking Engagements
- Moderator, "Advanced Copyright/Trademark," American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association, June 27, 2003
- Co-Chair, "One Day Advanced Workshop on Commercializing Intellectual Property" for Law Seminars International, June 24, 2003
- Speaker, "Patent Litigation - What You Need to Know," University of California San Diego, Fall 2003
- Speaker, "Commercial Lending in California," May 14, 2002
- Speaker, "Patent Litigation," University of California San Diego, Fall 2002