Richard Neff is a renowned transactional technology, e-commerce and copyright lawyer, specializing in licensing and corporate transactions, often international transactions, as well as M&A, intellectual property protection and disputes, privacy and data protection, and copyright counseling for technology, media and Internet/ecommerce companies. His firm, Neff Law Firm, also handles many tech startups. Neff Law Firm has a significant trademark practice also.
Neff has a strong specialty in international commercial and business law, often negotiating international transactions for clients, sometimes in Spanish, Portuguese or French. He handles all Latin American legal work for a number of clients. Over the past year he has dedicated much time to data protection and helping companies become GDPR-compliant and/or participate in European Privacy Shield Frameworks with ITA/US Department of Commerce. Recently he has represented a number of German technology and games companies in the United States, as well as the UK subsidiaries of several technology companies in connection with their US needs.
Half of his clients are California-based, including many in Silicon Valley, and the rest are located across the country and globe. They include/included Rubrik, Box.com, Waterline Data, SnapLogic, JAMS, Informatica, Logitech, Microsoft, Intuit, Apple, APM Music (largest production music library in the US), eSalon, Video Copilot, Yahoo!, Roland Corporation, SunGard, Autodesk, Lynda.com (acquired by LinkedIn), Dailymotion, pricegrabber.com (acquired by Experian), Symantec, Mandalay Entertainment, Business Software Alliance (BSA), Glu Mobile, Airpush, Straight Up Technolgies, as well as other mid-market companies, tech startups and app developers. He also represents various work-for-hire developers, such as Avantica Technologies, Saguaro Technology and Menlo Technologies.
In 2019 his firm represented 231Play, a successful German mobile games developer, together with CMS Hasche Sigle's Berlin office, in an M&A transaction: the sale of 231Play to Jam City, a large Los Angeles-based games company. His firm is currently handling the sale of another technology client with various international offices to an India-based purchaser.
In the privacy and data protection area over the past year he has represented SnapLogic, JAMS, Roland/V-Moda, eSalon, APM Music and other companies both with their participation in the EU-U.S. and/or Swiss-US Privacy Shield Frameworks, GDPR compliance, and in general with improving their Privacy Policies and practices.
In 2018-19, he has helped five companies reach settlements in difficult disputes that could have led to litigation. In general, Neff has helped clients avoid litigation in over 90% of the disputes he has handled.
The Firm has a successful trademark practice headed by Amanda Nye. In its trademark practice, it represents a wide array of companies prosecuting and registering trademarks all over the world. Quite a few of these companies are not technology or media companies, and some are valuable brand-based companies, even fashion companies.
Neff is a former Chairman of the Washington, DC-based BSA. He was Chair of the Tech/IP Practice at Greenberg Glusker for five years, until he re-established New Law Firm at the start of 2010, and before that he headed Neff Law Group for 12 years. He graduated from Yale Law School (and was an Editor of Yale Law Journal) and Cornell (with Distinction in All Subjects), and was a Fulbright Scholar in Peru. He has written books on intellectual property and technology licensing, as well as numerous articles. He has won recognition and awards from numerous organizations and publications, including LA Business Journal, Corporate LiveWire, Acquisition International, IR Global and Global Law Experts.
You can learn more about Richard and Neff Law Firm at www.nefflaw.com.
