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Admitted: 1986, California, U.S. District Court, Central, Eastern, Southern and Northern Districts of California and U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit Law School: Dalhousie University, LL.B. Member: Los Angeles County and American (Member, Intellectual Property and Litigation Sections) Bar Associations; State Bar of California (Member, Intellectual Property Section). Biography: Clerk, Hon. Justice Gerard Laforest, Supreme Court of Canada, 1984-1985. General Counsel, International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, 2003-2008. Born: Montreal, Quebec Languages: French
Before starting the firm in 2001, J. Andrew ("Andy") Coombs managed intellectual property protection at The Walt Disney Company on behalf of Disney and its affiliated companies. Andy reorganized Disney's consumer products enforcement strategy by developing training programs, working closely with Disney's licensing and other consumer products companies, while managing outside counsel in the United States and overseas. As Andy's tenure with Disney coincided with the explosive growth of the Internet, Andy and his staff implemented effective policies to combat the emerging problems of enforcing Disney's intellectual properties on the Internet. Some of the infringement issues Andy handled daily ranged from domain name issues to fan sites, spam e-mail, auctions, hyperlinking, framing, banner networks, commercial sales, and licensing. Andy was also responsible for motion picture anti-piracy, including video anti-piracy, Internet streaming and downloading of content files, optical disk piracy, signal theft and unauthorized performance.
Since starting his practice specializing in intellectual property enforcement, Andy has represented several Fortune 500 companies in a range of industries, including entertainment, software, fashion and manufacturing. Andy also served as General Counsel of the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (2003-2008) and was Chair of its Internet Enforcement Committee (2006-2009).
Andy is originally from Canada where he graduated at the top of his class at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After law school Andy interned at the Law Reform Commission of Canada and then clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada. As a promising legal analyst Andy was recruited to work at the Los Angeles office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP upon completion of his clerkship. He worked as a commercial litigator with substantial exposure to intellectual property disputes. Among the matters he handled was an early "John Doe" restraining order for the University of Southern California.
As an expert in his field Andy also worked with the Motion Picture Association of America on the formulation of an Internet enforcement strategy, the prosecution of test litigation and the reorganization of anti-piracy programs in rapidly developing markets. Andy was also a founding member of the Piracy Working Group of the Interactive Digital Software Association (entertainment software) and worked with the Recording Industry Association of America (music) on their anti-piracy efforts. Due to the progressive nature of his practice, Andy is regularly invited to speak at a variety of intellectual property related forums.
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