Andre Marais is a registered patent attorney and principal of Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner. He leads the firm’s Silicon Valley office and the firm’s AI adoption work.
His practice is focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR), along with software, networking, communications, and electrical/electronic technologies. Andre is passionate about architecting, building, and managing patent portfolios with his clients. He believes that patent portfolios should be valuable, strategic assets that align with a solid business strategy. Having had the good fortune to work closely with several of Silicon Valley’s prominent companies since their early days, he brings an “in the trenches” perspective to portfolio strategy and growth.
His work includes strategic IP counseling and patent prosecution (US and foreign), patent validity, infringement and clearance analysis and opinions, and IP due diligence.
Andre is a frequent speaker on intellectual property topics and is a co-author of several intellectual property publications.
Andre has been named in the IAM Strategy 300 by IAM magazine (Law Business Research) (2016-2026) and IAM Patent 1000 by IAM magazine (Law Business Research) (2012-2025).
University of South Africa Faculty of Law
Pretoria, South Africa, 1993, J.D. equivalent
University of Stellenbosch
South Africa, 1990
Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial-Electronics)
California
South Africa
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Member, California State Bar Association
Member, Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Association (SVIPLA)
Member, American Intellectual Property Law Association
Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
Freedom-To-Operate and Portfolio Due Diligence (Moderated)
5th Annual IP Counsel Forum (San Jose 2009) – Andre Marais, Francois de Villiers
Blood from the Stone: Extracting Invention Disclosures from Busy Engineers (Moderated)
6th Annual IP Counsel Forum (San Jose 2010) – Andre Marais, Bill Becker, Kirk Goodwin, Eugene Kim
Freedom-to-Operate – Patent Landscape Analysis
Web Cast (June 2009) – Andre Marais, Joseph Wang
Capitalizing on Emerging Markets & Technologies (Moderated)
SVASE (Palo Alto, 2006) – Andre Marais, Deepak Kamra (Canaan Partners), Tony Parisi, Anne-Marie Roussel, Anthony Townsend
Patent Prosecution 101
Law Seminars International’s workshop entitled “Patent Law for Non-Patent Lawyers and Business Professionals” (San Francisco April 6, 2005) – Andre Marais
KSR and its Aftermath
IP Counsel Café (Palo Alto, 2010) – Andre Marais, Jonathan Feuchtwang, Loren McRoss