

John D. Esterhay
- San Diego
- Los Angeles
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Informed by his background in materials science and engineering, John successfully represents companies in complex commercial litigations where advanced technical issues are at stake.
John Esterhay represents clients in matters involving patent, trade secret, breach of contract, and business tort litigations. John’s clients range from Fortune 500 companies to niche manufacturers facing bet-the-company litigation on their proprietary technology. His experience in handling dozens of cases in federal district court has helped him amass in-depth knowledge of many types of highly technical litigation.
Prior to his legal career, John utilized his engineering background at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and his skills in cryptanalysis at the U.S. National Security Agency. This broad base of technical experience has allowed John’s legal practice to span a variety of industries, including advanced analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, synchronous step-down converters, multiphase controllers, power integrated circuits, and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors. He has also worked on matters related to wireless and cellular network communications, heat dissipation technology, solid state drives, double data rate synchronous dynamic random-access memory (DDR SDRAM), optics, e-commerce, mobile application technology, touch sensors, medical, power storage, automotive, and de-icing technology.
Areas of focus
Industries
Services
Education & Credentials
Education
- Yale Law School, J.D., Editor-in-Chief, Yale Journal of Law and Technology, 2010
- Columbia University, B.S., Materials Science and Engineering, C. Prescott Davis Scholar, 2007
Bar and Court Admissions
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California
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New York
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U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida
Related Employment
- U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut, Bridgeport, CT, Legal Prosecution Extern, 2008-2009
- U.S. Department of Justice, Counterterrorism Section, Washington, DC, Summer Legal Intern, 2008
Professional Recognition
Recognized by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for Intellectual Property Law; Litigation - Intellectual Property, 2021-2025
Awarded Pro Bono Publico by Casa Cornelia Law Center, 2018