Spencer Hosie

Spencer Hosie is a nationally recognized top-ranked trial lawyer.  In his career, he has won or settled cases worth over $2 billion.  In 2005, the National Law Journal profiled Mr. Hosie as one of the 10 most successful trial lawyers in the country.

Mr. Hosie’s practice runs the spectrum of complex commercial cases, with particular focus on intellectual property, breach of contract, and fraud matters.

Mr. Hosie started with the San Francisco law firm of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, with an antitrust and securities defense practice.  He founded his own firm in 1985, now known as Hosie Rice LLP.

Representative Matters:

OV Loop, Inc. v. Mastercard Incorporated et al.
The Firm represents OV Loop, a Fintech company, in a significant patent case in the Southern District of New York.

Eden Reforestation Projects v. Aspiration Partners, Inc.
The Firm represents Eden Reforestation, a charity resurrecting devastated land by planting billions of trees, against Aspiration, a contractual partner.  The Firm won at Arbitration, and confirmed the Arbitration on appeal in court.  The Firm is now enforcing the significant Judgment.

MasterObjects, Inc. v. Meta Platforms, Inc.
The Firm represented MasterObjects, an Amsterdam-based software development company, in a significant patent case against Meta.  The case settled after the Firm won a Federal Circuit appeal.

PrivaSys, Inc. v. Discover Financial Services
The Firm represented PrivaSys, Inc. in an arbitration against Discover Financial Services.  The Firm prevailed, and the Defendant paid.

Space Data Corporation v. Alphabet Inc., and Google Inc.
The Firm represented Space Data Corporation, a pioneer in balloon constellation networking technology, in a patent, trade secret, and breach of contract case against Google.  The matter related to Google’s “Project Loon,” a derivative of a much earlier and robustly patented Space Data technology.  The case settled just before trial.

MasterObjects, Inc. v. eBay, Inc.
The Firm represented MasterObjects, an Amsterdam-based software development company which patented what is now colloquially known as Instant Search, e.g., the search engine receives several characters of a search query, and then in several milliseconds suggests query completions with associated content.  This case resolved with prior cases for this client resolved against Google and Microsoft.

FiTeq, Inc. v. Venture Corporation, Ltd. and Cebelian Holding Pte, Ltd.
The Firm served as lead trial counsel for an emerging tech “smart card” company in a significant IP, breach of contract, and fraud case, against a Singapore-based contract manufacturing entity.  The case was successfully tried to jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff.  The case settled two weeks after trial.

Backflip Software, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Firm represented a Tel Aviv/U.S. software development company in a significant trade secret misappropriation and fraud case against Cisco Systems.  The case settled on the Courthouse steps for a confidential amount.

Ripple: Arthur Britto v. Jed McCaleb et al.
In a cryptocurrency case, the Firm served as counsel for the co-founder and coder of a digital platform and currency, Ripple and XRP respectively, in a dispute with a co-founder.  The case ended in successful resolution for the client before trial.

Global Allies, LLC v. Charter Furniture Corp., Brookline Furniture Company, L.L.C. and JL Furnishings LLC et al.
The Firm served as lead trial counsel in a series of cases enforcing a design patent portfolio on behalf of a high end custom furniture design company, Global Allies.  Each case resulted in a cease and desist agreement, preserving the value of Global Allies’ patent portfolio.

BackWeb Technologies, Ltd. v. Microsoft Corporation et al.
The Firm represented BackWeb, an Israeli-based software development company, in a significant IP case against Microsoft in the Northern District of California.  The case resulted in a confidential settlement before trial.

Carl Weissensee, Jr. v. Ron Oznowicz, et al.
The Firm represented the Plaintiff in a complex real estate and fraud dispute in Marin County Superior Court.  The defendant was Ron Oznowicz, a real estate developer investing his brother Frank Oznowicz’s money.  Frank Oznowicz was the co-creator of the Muppets, the voice of Yoda, and a Hollywood director.  The case was successfully tried to verdict in 2014, and the Plaintiffs won on all claims and counts.  The Oznowicz Defendants appealed, lost, and then paid the full judgment.

Austrian v. eHuman, Inc. et al.
The Firm represented a cofounder of a software company based in the Bay Area.  The Firm won at arbitration, and the case settled.

Onconome, Inc. v. Johns Hopkins University et al.
The Firm represented Onconome, a Seattle-based drug development company.  The case involved explosive allegations of scientific fraud and was settled for a confidential amount prior to trial.

Implicit Networks, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation
The Firm represented Implicit Networks in several patent cases.  The Microsoft case was tried, by agreement, to Judge Edward Infante (Ret.).  Implicit prevailed, and the case then resolved for a confidential amount.

State of Alaska v. ExxonMobil
Mr. Hosie served as lead trial counsel for the State of Alaska in a breach of contract case against ExxonMobil in 2006.  The State of Alaska prevailed.

Burst.com, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation
The Firm served as lead counsel for Burst.com, an independent software vendor, in antitrust, patent, and trade secret case against Microsoft in the District of Maryland.  The case was successfully settled for $60 million.

State of Louisiana v. Chevron USA
Mr. Hosie served as lead trial counsel for the State of Louisiana in a fraud action tried to jury verdict in 2004.  The $111 million verdict for the State was acknowledged as a Top 15 verdict in 2004.  The case settled shortly after the verdict.

Earl Anzai, Attorney General for the State of Hawaii v. Chevron Corp., et al.
Mr. Hosie served as lead counsel for  the State of Hawaii in a statewide gasoline price-fixing antitrust case in the District of Hawaii.  The case resolved for $35 million, with regulatory changes as well.

In re Lease Oil Antitrust Litigation

Mr. Hosie served as co-lead counsel for a nationwide subclass of oil royalty owners in an antitrust case heard in the Southern District of Texas.  The case resulted in a successful $200 million settlement for the client class.

In re Exxon Corp.

Mr. Hosie served as lead trial counsel for the State of Alaska in a six month oil tax dispute trial, resulting in a $259 million verdict for the State, which Exxon paid.

In re ANS Royalty Litigation

Mr. Hosie served as lead trial counsel for the State of Alaska in cases against multiple major oil companies, seeking recovery of North Slope oil royalties in Alaska Superior Court.  These cases resulted in circa $1.2 billion in recoveries for the client between 1988-1995.

Cloakworks, Inc. v. Cloakware, Inc. et al.

Mr. Hosie represented the inventor of a computer code obfuscation technology, designed to protect software from reverse engineering and tampering, in a series of patent infringement cases in the Northern District of California.  The cases resulted in successful settlements with all defendants.

PrivaSys, Inc. v. Mastercard International Incorporated

Mr. Hosie represented an emerging tech company with novel technology in the credit card security area against Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and others.  All cases resolved through settlement or mediation, with significant licenses for our client.