Jeffrey M. Fisher

With an interest in technology for most of his life, Fisher enjoys working on complicated issues with his clients as an intellectual property lawyer.

"I think the key to being a litigator in this space is being able to explain things in a way that is understandable to the ultimate decision-makers," Fisher said.

In a recent action, Fisher and his team represented a manufacturer of bedding products, Down-Lite International Inc., in the California-based companion action brought by an employee to a misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract action filed in the Southern District of Ohio by Down-Lite.

The employee was seeking preliminary injunctive relief to enjoin Down-Lite from enforcing certain restrictions in agreements.

Fisher said the former employee tried to bring the case out to California since the law for employees can be more favorable in the state. Altbaier v. Down-Lite, 3:19-cv-04348-EM, (N.D. Cal., filed July 29, 2019).

"We were successful in getting the case shut down, both in the Northern District of California, where the former employee tried to bring the case," Fisher said. "And then we were successful in getting the case out of the Central District of California where the company that the employee had ended up working was trying to get the case."

Fisher also takes on cases where he defends the little guy against large corporations.

He represents Sevillo Fine Foods Inc., a producer of slow-roasted tomatoes, in a lawsuit filed by Haliburton International Foods Inc.

A former Haliburton employee left to work at Sevillo. Haliburton claims the employee is using confidential and trade secret information from his former employer, according to court documents. Haliburton International Foods Inc. v. Sevillo Fine Foods Inc., 5:20-cv-01069, (C.D. Cal., filed May 21, 2020).

"Our client is a smaller company and in our view, the larger company is using litigation to try and deter competition in the industry," Fisher said.

Fisher and his team are preparing to respond to the filed complaint.

With each case being different from one another, Fisher's strategy is to distill all the information in a case into a coherent story that makes sense.

"A lot of times, judges and juries don't necessarily have a deep technical background, but they will certainly understand how important a technology may be and why someone may want to go out and take it from my client," Fisher said.

-- Henrik Nilsson