Yoon & Kim LLP Partner

THEODORE K. CHENG
tcheng@yoonkimlaw.com

Theo Cheng has nearly 15 years of experience in a broad array of litigation matters in federal and state courts for clients in the high-tech, telecommunications, entertainment, consumer products, medical devices, and financial services industries. He maintains a general commercial litigation and consulting practice, with a focus on providing copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secrets litigation and prosecution advice to individuals, small and middle-market businesses, and Fortune 1000 companies. In 2007, he was named one of the Best Lawyers Under 40 by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

Mr. Cheng also provides alternative dispute resolution services. He has resolved numerous matters through facilitated negotiations, arbitrations, and mediations, including wage and hour disputes, breach of contract and negligence actions, trade secret theft, employment discrimination claims, and intellectual property infringement. Under an appointment by the New York Civil Court, Mr. Cheng has conducted approximately 80 arbitrations, mediations, settlement discussions, and inquests, handling cases that have spanned employment disputes, contract breaches, bailment issues, failure to pay for services, and return of security deposits. He was also recently selected by the Southern District of New York federal court to serve as a court-appointed mediator, assisting to resolve a wide variety of matters, including commercial disputes, employment discrimination cases, and intellectual property challenges.

Mr. Cheng's representative matters have included:

• Represented a defendant in a suit alleging claims for intellectual property infringement and theft of trade secrets over the design, development, and marketing of a mass-marketed medical device
• Conducted a patent damages jury trial over an animal vaccine manufactured by a major pharmaceutical client
• Managed all aspects of copyright infringement actions brought by classes of songwriters and music publishers against unlicensed peer-to-peer Internet file-sharing companies Grokster, Napster, Aimster, and Audiogalaxy, including appeals to the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court
• Defended a test preparation company in a copyright infringement suit brought by a trade association
• Represented a major domestic brewing company against a foreign wine producer in a trademark opposition proceeding
• Negotiated and resolved disputes over the unauthorized use of a corporate name, copyrights, and trademarks
• Provided DMCA advice and consultation to a multimedia client in connection with potential acquisitions

Mr. Cheng was previously a senior litigator at four prominent New York City law firms, including Proskauer Rose LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. He received his A.B. cum laude in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard University and his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Moot Court Board. Mr. Cheng also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Julio M. Fuentes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the Honorable Ronald L. Buckwalter of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Cheng currently serves as the Secretary to the Second Circuit Courts Committee of the Federal Bar Council and is a member of the New York City Bar's Copyright & Literary Property Committee. He is also a member of the New York State Bar Association, the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., and the New York Intellectual Property Law Association. Since 2008, Mr. Cheng has been annually named a New York State Bar Association Empire State Counsel. He is a past Recording Secretary and Director of the Asian American Bar Association of New York and a past co-chair of its Litigation Committee. He currently co-chairs the organization's Judiciary Committee.

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