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, ultimately named Hosie, Wes, Sacks & Brelsford, which specialized in intellectual property, energy, and complex litigation.

Representative Matters:

Space Data Corporation v. Alphabet Inc., and Google, Inc.
Mr. Hosie represents Space Data Corporation, a pioneer in balloon constellation networking technology, in a patent, trade secret, and breach of contract case against Google. The matter relates to Google’s “Project Loon,” a derivative of a much earlier and robustly patented Space Data technology. This case is set for trial in June 2019.

Read More (Law 360, Kelly Knaub, May 12, 2017)
Read More (Law 360, Dorothy Atkins, May 23, 2017)
Read More (Wired, Mark Harris, July 5, 2017)
Read More (Learn Bonds Bond and Finance News, Paul Shea, July 6, 2017)

MasterObjects, Inc. v. eBay, Inc.
Mr. Hosie represents 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 is pending in the Northern District of California and is the third of several related cases, with prior cases resolved against Google and Microsoft.

Financial Technology Breach of Contract and Fraud Dispute
Mr. Hosie 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 in early 2017. The case settled after trial.

Trade Secret Misappropriation and Fraud Case for Software Development Company
Mr. Hosie served as lead counsel for a Tel Aviv/U.S. software development company in a significant trade secret misappropriation and fraud case against a large Santa Clara County technology firm. The case settled on the Courthouse steps for a confidential amount.

Arthur Britto v. Jed McCaleb et al.
In a cryptocurrency case, Mr. Hosie served as counsel for the co-founder of a digital platform and currency, Ripple and XRP respectively, in a dispute against another 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.
Mr. Hosie served as lead 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.
Mr. Hosie served as lead counsel for 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.

Weissensee, Jr. v. Ron Oznowicz, et al.
Mr. Hosie served as lead and trial counsel for plaintiffs 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. Read the Article.

Austrian v. eHuman, Inc. et al.
Mr. Hosie served as lead and trial counsel for a cofounder of a software company based in Santa Clara County. The case was won at trial and then settled.

Onconome, Inc. v. John Hopkins University et al.
Mr. Hosie served as lead counsel for 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
Mr. Hosie served as lead and trial counsel for Implicit Networks in a patent case. The 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.  The State received an $85 million verdict, which the Defendant subsequently paid.  The win was one of the Top 15 verdicts of 2005.

Burst.com, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation
Mr. Hosie 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 of 2004.

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.

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

In re Exxon Corp.
Mr. Hosie served as lead trial counsel for the State of Alaska in a six-month tax-dispute trial, resulting in a $259 million verdict for the State.

In re ANS Royalty Litigation
Mr. Hosie served as lead trial counsel for the State of Alaska in an action against multiple major oil companies, seeking recovery of North Slope oil royalties in Alaska Superior Court. This action resulted in $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 et al.
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 eight figure licenses for our client.