John A. Chatowski
Counsel

Practice Areas

Experience

Mr. Chatowski is a commercial litigator who concentrates his practice in disputes involving intellectual property matters, including trademark, copyright, trade secret, and consumer privacy cases, as well as complex insurance, product liability, personal injury, fraud cases including consumer class actions, and professional liability matters.

In the area of  intellectual property, Mr. Chatowski represents small and large companies in trademark and copyright disputes. He recently successfully represented a large grocery store chain in a trademark “abandonment” case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Grocery Outlet v. Albertsons, 497 F.3d 949 (9th Cir. 2007) (affirming preliminary injunction)and 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101999 (N.D. Cal. 2008) (granting summary judgment).  He also represents and counsels clients in trade secret cases, and most recently, in a consumer privacy class action.

Mr. Chatowski is also experienced in the prosecution and defense of insurance disputes involving breach of contract, bad faith and fraud. He has defended a workers’ compensation third party administrator in several actions in state and federal court, including a case that was tried to verdict in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. He also prosecuted an action on behalf of the California Self Insurers’ Security Fund that resulted in $19.8 million stipulated judgment for the client.

Mr. Chatowski also has extensive experience in personal injury maters, including complex product liability and toxic tort cases, representing clients in cases involving accidents at refineries, near pipelines and in retail establishments. He has also defended product manufacturers in fraud and consumer class action lawsuits. He also has represented and counseled attorneys and law firms in professional liability actions involving allegations of conflicts of interest and attorney malpractice.

Publications

• "Case Study: Starbucks V. Wolfe's Borough Coffee, Law 360, December 2009 (Co-authored with Robert A. Weikert)
• Federal Courts Decline to Limit FACTA Claims to Paper Printed Receipts, The Secure Times, Newsletter of the Section of Antitrust Law's Privacy and Information Security Committee, American Bar Association, Vol. 3, No. 1, Fall/Winter 2007.
• California Court of Appeal Decision Will Impact Discovery in Cases Involving Claims Based on Misappropriation of Trade Secrets, Thelen LLP Intellectual Property & Trade Regulation Journal (Fall 2005) (Co-Author).
• Using Daubert Offensively—When to Wield the Sword of Motion Practice, Defense Research Institute Seminar (1996) (Co-Author).
• Class III Medical Device Preemption After Cipollone: Two Inconsistent Trends, 44 Food, Drug, Cosmetic and Medical Device Law Digest, Vol. 12, No. 1, 32 (January/May 1995)(Co-Author).
• Cipollone and the Clear Statement Rule: Doctrinal Anomaly or New Development in Federal Preemption? 44 Syracuse L. Rev. 769 (1993).

Admissions

John is admitted to practice in California, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, and U.S. District Courts of California.

Education

Syracuse University College of Law , J.D., magna cum laude (Order of the Coif; Justinian Honor Society; Law Review (Technical Editor); Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity (Vice Justice))
University of California, Davis, B.A., Political Science and History, Minor in English (Pi Sigma Alpha (National Political Science Honor Society); Political Science Students’ Association (President; Secretary))

Affiliations

American Bar Association
Bar Association of San Francisco

Charitable/Civic Associations

Down Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area