Silicon Valley
Phone +1.650.843.7519
Fax +1.650.843.4001
1400 Page Mill Road//Palo Alto, CA 94304-1124//United States
With decades of experience, Dion focuses on Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) trials, and patent prosecution, counseling, and litigation. He has led well over 100 PTAB trials. He also oversees large patent portfolios for Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. Dion is the deputy practice leader of the firm’s IP group, leads the firm’s PTAB group, is the Managing Partner of the firm's Silicon Valley office, co-leads the firm’s technology group, and leads the IP group’s technology practice. Dion was also named a “California Lawyer of the Year” by California Lawyer.
Dion represents public and private companies in the software, hardware, media, Internet, telecommunications, medical device, aerospace, business methods, graphical user interfaces, fintech, and semiconductor fields.
Dion has prepared and prosecuted thousands of patent applications. He has or is currently handling scores of post-grant proceedings, including reexaminations, inter partes reviews (IPRS), and covered business method reviews. In fact, he argued the second-ever IPR before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and has since handled more than 100 IPRs. He also regularly prepares noninfringement and invalidity opinions.
Dion also has an active litigation practice. In 2012, he was named a “California Lawyer of the Year” for Intellectual Property by California Lawyer. The magazine cited his role as part of the Morgan Lewis team that carried “a small technology company to a $140 million victory” in ActiveVideo v. Verizon in the Eastern District of Virginia. The win was one of the five largest patent damage awards in the United States, with a total expected recovery in excess of $260 million. Dion has also been recognized as a “Super Lawyer” by Thomson Reuters in the area of Intellectual Property from 2013 onward.
Dion joined Morgan Lewis in 2004 after practicing intellectual property law at high-profile firms based in New York and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Awards and Affiliations
Member, Practice Group of the Year, Intellectual Property, Law360 (2019)
Member, Litigation Department of the Year–Intellectual Property, The American Lawyer (2019)
Recommended, Intellectual property: Patents: prosecution (including re-examination and post-grant proceedings), The Legal 500 US (2020)
Ranked, Intellectual Property: Patent Prosecution, California, Chambers USA (2017–2019)
Recognized, IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Professionals (2017–2020)
Recognized, IP Patent Star – California, Managing Intellectual Property (2018–2020)
Recognized, Northern California Super Lawyers (2013–2016)
"California Lawyer of the Year," Intellectual Property, California Lawyer (2012)
Admissions
California
U.S.District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Central Districts of California
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Education
University of Johannesburg, South Africa, 1998, LL.B. (J.D.)
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, 1993, B.S.C. Aeronautical Engineering
