Founding of a law firm
Intellectual Property Law Group, LLP was founded in 1998 in San Jose, California, by Otto Lee, who came to the firm after building a career around intellectual property from several different vantage points. He had served as an extern clerk at the United States Federal District Court, worked as a patent agent at Sheldon and Mak, and then spent years at Intel Corporation as a senior intellectual property attorney, where he handled trademark matters across five of the company's divisions. That combination of courtroom, prosecution, and in-house experience shaped a firm built deliberately for the pace and the clients of Silicon Valley.
Building a client base
From its earliest days the firm concentrated on intellectual property for technology clients, handling patent, trademark, and copyright prosecution alongside infringement litigation, licensing negotiation, and trade-secret protection. Working at the center of Silicon Valley, IPLG helped founders and growing companies protect the inventions and brands their businesses were built on, and it deliberately paired prosecution with the litigation and licensing work that becomes necessary once intellectual property begins to carry real commercial value.
Representative work
Over the years that practice has included a number of well-known matters. The firm advised Prince and NPG Music Publishing on the intellectual property behind new albums, and it negotiated an international patent licensing agreement between Bulbrite Industries and Philips NV that bridged two companies operating under different legal systems. Alongside those named engagements, IPLG has represented clients in infringement and trade-secret disputes across the technology sector.
Growing footprint
What started as a single Silicon Valley office has grown into a multi-office practice that today works from San Jose, Fresno, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. The firm's reach extends well beyond California, representing clients across the United States and in markets that include Singapore, Spain, Hong Kong, Germany, and Turkey, and it handles cross-border filings, registrations, transactions, and enforcement through associate relationships in more than fifty countries.
IPLG Today
A modern intellectual property and business law firm, drawing on decades of experience at the center of Silicon Valley to serve technology companies and other innovators across the United States and abroad.
Full-service practice
Today, IPLG is a full-service intellectual property and business law firm, with its headquarters in San Jose and additional offices in Fresno, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. The practice covers the full range of intellectual property work, from patent, trademark, and copyright prosecution through trade-secret protection, licensing, and litigation, together with the corporate, commercial, and customs matters that sit alongside it. Over the years the firm has prosecuted more than 1,400 patents and filed more than 5,000 trademark applications, and through associate relationships in more than fifty countries it continues to handle cross-border filings, registrations, transactions, and enforcement for clients operating well beyond California.
Looking ahead
Founded in 1998, IPLG remains rooted in the technology community that has always been at its center, and it has carried that focus through each wave of Silicon Valley, from the early internet to mobile and now to artificial intelligence. The firm is increasingly focused on emerging trends such as AI and green technology, working with the innovators whose patents, trademarks, and trade secrets are shaping what comes next.
What the firm brings to those companies is experience. Since 1998, IPLG has protected intellectual property across thousands of patent and trademark filings, alongside years of licensing and enforcement work, and that track record is what it offers founders and businesses entering new and fast-moving markets. The questions change with each new industry, but securing an invention, building the rights around a brand, and defending them when they are challenged remains familiar work for the firm. That experience is what will help the next generation of companies protect the intellectual property their growth depends on.
