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Overview

Christin Cho is a partner at the firm.  She attended UC Berkeley School of Law (Order of the Coif, 2005) where she graduated in the top 10 students in her class.  Christin joined the firm in 2007, after serving as a law clerk to Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.

Christin’s practice focuses on high-stakes litigation, with a focus on consumer class actions and technology.  She has made dozens of successful oral arguments; written over 100 briefs (with no losses on summary judgment); taken over 100 depositions (including of key witnesses and experts); and prepared over a dozen petition responses defending the validity of patents before the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (none of the challenged patents were found invalid).

Christin teaches Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property at the University of Southern California.   

Education

  • University of California, Berkeley (J.D., Order of the Coif, 2005)
  • Amherst College (B.A., cum laude, 2001)

Prior Associations

  • Law Clerk for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  • Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher

Notable Cases

Illegal online gaming.  Over the last decade, the world’s leading slot machine makers have teamed up with technology companies—Apple, Google, and Facebook—to deliver highly addictive social gambling apps played on smartphones, tablets, and internet browsers.  These apps allow consumers to purchase virtual “chips” with real money, and then gamble those chips in the hopes of winning more chips.  In 2020 alone, consumers purchased and gambled an estimated $6 billion in these social gambling apps.  These social gambling apps are illegal under many states’ antigambling laws.  We represent plaintiffs in the social gambling multi-district litigation against Apple, Google, and Facebook.  Christin was appointed a member of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee for this lawsuit. 

Protecting ordinary investors.  Vanguard markets its “target date” retirement funds as a “set it and forget it” option for ordinary investors.  In 2020, to cater to large retirement plans, Vanguard made a fund management decision that heaped unprecedented capital gains tax liability on smaller, ordinary investors.  We represent the proposed class of injured investors in a class action in federal court in Pennsylvania.   Here is the complaint.

“Non-Drowsy” medication that makes you drowsy.  Many companies sell over-the-counter cough, cold, and flu medications that are prominently labeled “Non-Drowsy.”  The products, however, contain Dextromethorphan, an active ingredient that causes drowsiness.  We represent plaintiffs in a consumer class action alleging that the “Non-Drowsy” label misleads consumers into believing that the medication does not cause drowsiness.

Power Over Ethernet.  On behalf of Network-1 Technologies, a small NYSE listed company, our firm sued Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, and other large manufacturers of networking switches, Wi-Fi access points, and Internet phones that used Network-1’s patented Power over Ethernet technology.  The cases ended in settlements resulting in ongoing royalty payments that have amounted to more than $160 million to date.

Wireless location.  Represented TracBeam LLC, an inventor-owned company that has successfully asserted its patents on wireless location against a number of industry leaders.  Our team obtained numerous successful rulings, and the cases were settled on confidential terms.

Preclusion boomerang.  Yale computer science professor David Gelernter invented a visionary computer operating system that made finding documents intuitive and fast.  He then partnered with others to found Mirrors World Technologies to commercialize his invention.  In 2008, Mirrors World sued Apple for infringing Dr. Gelernter’s patents with Apple’s OS X operating system.  The jury found that Apple willfully infringed and that the patents were valid.  But the judge threw out the jury verdict because of insufficient evidence and entered a judgment of non-infringement.  The court of appeals agreed with the judge.  Things did not look good for Mirror Worlds.  Then we took the case.

We sued Apple again for continuing to infringe Dr. Gelernter’s patents.  Apple brought motions to bar this second infringement suit under three different preclusion doctrines.  We defeated each one.  We then won a motion to preclude Apple from continuing to challenge the validity of the patent.  We also found a way to use the prior jury verdict and non-infringement judgment as evidence that Apple knew that it was willfully infringing.  The case settled a few days before trial was to commence.  An article about the outcome of the case is available here.

Online advertising.  Lead counsel for ExitExchange enforcing its online advertising patent against a dozen other online advertising companies and advertisers.  Christin successfully managed all aspects of the cases (including claim analysis, case strategy, discovery, and licensing).  The cases were settled on confidential terms.

Optical drive and hard drive technology.  Represented Lake Cherokee Hard Drive Technologies in a series of patent infringement lawsuits in the Eastern District of Texas against optical disk drive and hard disk drive chip makers.  Christin strategically managed the cases from filing to disposition, including expert and fact discovery, Markman briefing, and dispositive motion practice.  The cases were settled on confidential terms.

Operating system.  Lead counsel for STAR CO Ranger Digital in enforcing its portable operating system patent against Microsoft in the Eastern District of Texas.  The case settled on confidential terms as a result of a mediation.

Manufacturing methods.  Represented Abstrax Inc. in a patent infringement lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas against Dell Inc. relating to manufacturing methods.  We obtained a favorable Markman ruling and the denial of Dell’s motions for summary judgment.  The Court also made several pre-trial evidentiary and Daubert rulings that were favorable to Abstrax.  The case settled on confidential terms on the evening before trial was to commence.

Personal Facts

  • Christin and her husband met on an airplane. They have three children.
  • Christin has been a cryptocurrency investor since 2011.
  • Christin is an avid surfer.

Joining Dovel & Luner

I learned of Dovel & Luner while I was clerking at the Ninth Circuit.  A good friend of mine, a big firm lawyer-turned-legal recruiter, told me that a top-notch firm called Dovel & Luner was hiring and strongly encouraged me to apply.  In addition, the firm came very highly recommended from people that I trusted.  The judge that I was working for (Judge J. Clifford Wallace) knew Greg Dovel and spoke extremely highly of him.  A family friend, who was the head of litigation at a Biglaw firm, was familiar with Dovel & Luner and spoke with admiration about the firm.

After an all-day interview at Dovel & Luner, I was convinced that I should join the firm.  The firm offered strong mentorship, the opportunity to do meaningful legal work on complex cases, and great colleagues.  Based on all of these factors, I decided to join the Dovel & Luner in 2007.

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