Christopher Banys

ChristopherBanys leads The Lanier Law Firm's Palo Alto, California office and heads the firm's nationwide intellectual-property practice.

Mr. Banyshas successfully represented both individuals and Fortune 500 corporations in patent and other IP disputes around the country, but he finds vindicating the rights of individual inventors and small companiesmost rewarding.  Fighting - and winning - on behalf of small inventors with big ideas against impossible-seeming odds is not just his passion; it's where he excels.

Throughout his career, Mr. Banys has won praise from clients, judges, colleagues and opposing counsel alike for his impassioned, intelligent, effective advocacy and his forthright, professional demeanor. In all of his work, Mr. Banys strives to bring the best in compassionate legal care for his clients while adhering to his core principals of honesty, integrity, and fierce advocacy.

Examples of Mr. Banys' current matters include:

• InNova Patent Licensing, LLC v. 3Com Corporation, et. al. (E.D. Texas): representing InNova against 36 corporate giants, including Apple and Google, for patent infringement regarding email spam filtration;
• Motiva v. Nintendo, (W.D. Wash.): representing technology start-up Motiva against video game giant Nintendo, for patent infringement by the Wii;
• Prism Technologies v. Adobe, et. al., (D. Neb.): representing Prism against ten large technology companies for patent infringement involving software authentication;
• Edge Games v. Electronic Arts, (N.D. Cal.): representing small video game maker Edge Games alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition against gaming behemoth EA.

A few examples of Mr. Banys' earlier matters include:

• Prust v. Apple, (N.D. Cal.): successfully represented a computer scientist in a patent-infringement suit against Apple involving cloud-computing technology;
• Chirife v. St. Jude Medical, (E.D. Tex.): successfully represented a medical doctor/inventor alleging patent-infringement, copyright-infringement, fraud, trade secret theft, breach of contract and unjust enrichment against St. Jude Medical, a for-profit corporation and one of the world's largest medical device manufacturers;
• 800 Adept v. AT&T, et. al., (E.D. Tex.): obtained settlement on behalf of a small, innovative provider of telephone routing technologies, in patent litigation against the four largest wireless-communications companies in the United States;
• Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, v. WellPoint, (E.D. Tex. & C.D. Cal.): litigation counsel to one of the nation's largest insurance companies in a patent-infringement matter involving call routing;
• Advante v. Mintel, (N.D. Cal.): successfully represented a small, educational-software company in a trade-secret dispute with a major competitor.

Mr. Banys has also successfully represented large biotech, computer hardware, and telecommunication handset companies in patent, copyright and antitrust suits against their rivals, as well as several individuals accused of trade-secret theft.

But Mr. Banys has not limited himself to high-stakes intellectual property matters. He has litigated commercial, criminal, immigration, probate, personal injury, employment and state-benefits matters in federal, state and administrative-law courts.

Community service is very important to Mr. Banys as well. Indeed, Mr. Banys has made providing free legal services to the neediest members of our community an important part of his legal career and has won awards for his efforts on behalf of the disadvantaged. Examples of Mr. Banys' pro bono work include:

• Winning several trials on behalf of homeless mothers and their children against state attempts to deny them emergency shelter;
• Winning a lengthy deportation trial on behalf of an immigrant family and their 5-year-old, gravely-ill, U.S.-citizen daughter - in front of the same judge that had previously ordered them deported;
• Winning emergency shelter and legal status for a homeless child who had been abandoned in the U.S. by his parents. Mr. Banys took on the case half way through the child's deportation trial after previous counsel withdrew. Mr. Banys obtained a stay from the Immigration Court, opened a state-court proceeding in Magnolia, Arkansas (where the child lived) and obtained a judgment from the Arkansas Court finding the child abused, neglected and abandoned by his parents and ordering the State of Arkansas to provide the child emergency shelter. With these findings, Mr. Banys was then able to open yet another federal proceeding and obtain special immigrant juvenile status for the child;
• Successfully resolving eviction cases on behalf of low-income families;
  Representing a gravely-injured 25-year-old and his family in Probate Court and in related liability matters;
• Protecting a local, San Francisco Bay Area artist accused of cybersquatting by a major web retailer;
• Representing an individual injured at the Fremont, California Costco store. Mr. Banys obtained a favorable settlement shortly before trial; and
• Counseling non-profit organizations in intellectual property matters.

Mr. Banys' pro bono awards include an Equal Justice America fellowship, several law firm awards, including pro bono associate of the year, and the Legal Services for Children's 2008 Pro Bono Advocate Award.

Mr. Banys earned his law degree from Boston University School of Law, where he was a Dean's Scholar. While at B.U., Mr. Banys participated in the school's exceptional Criminal Clinic program where he tried criminal cases in Massachusetts state courts for two semesters. Mr. Banys, along with a good friend, also won the school's negotiation competition, going on to represent B.U. in regional competition.

Mr. Banys spent his final semester of law school studying at Oxford University in Oxford, England. He earned his undergraduate degree in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of California (Berkeley), with high honors and high distinction in general scholarship.

Mr. Banys was recently invited to return to the United Kingdom to address legal issues at a cloud computing summit held in London and attended by industry leaders.

Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Banys lives in the heart of Silicon Valley with his wife, children and a lovable pit bull named Spencer. He is an avid outdoor-recreation enthusiast and a commercially-rated pilot.

Prior to founding The Lanier Law Firm's Palo Alto office, Mr. Banys was associated with several prominent Silicon Valley law firms.

Mr. Banys is admitted to practice before the following courts:

• The United States Supreme Court;
• The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit;
• The United States District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern Districts of California; the Western District of Wisconsin; the District of Nebraska; and the Eastern District of Texas;
• The California Supreme Court and all other California state courts.