United States Federal Courts, Eastern District of California,
Central District of California and Northern District of California
Ninth Circuit District Court of Appeals
United States Supreme Court
Experience
Dale is a senior shareholder in the Firm’s Litigation and Intellectual Property groups.
Dale has a broad range of Litigation experience in all areas of business, Intellectual Property, and Real Estate Litigation.
He has tried over forty jury trials to conclusion and has had numerous court trials and binding arbitrations since his admission to practice law in 1981.
Dale’s practice focuses on Litigation involving emerging and technology-related companies, including cases involving copyright and trademark infringement, patent rights, securities litigation, technology licensing rights, statutory unfair business practices, minority shareholder claims, stock option disputes and distributorship disputes.
Dale’s general business Trial and Litigation experience have included cases involving breach of contract, fraud, accountant liability, corporate governance, fiduciary duties, securities litigation, franchisor/franchisee disputes, anti-trust, shareholder derivative actions, partnership dissolutions and accountings, termination of distributorships, wrongful termination and performance bond claims.
Dale also developed extensive experience in all areas of real estate disputes, including land sale contracts, commercial landlord/tenant disputes, boundary and easement disputes, real estate investment fraud and environmental and hazardous waste litigation.
Dale’s extensive business trial, arbitration, and litigation experience includes:
Numerous jury trials and binding arbitrations representing plaintiffs and defendants in lawsuits involving corporate and partnership issues, including breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of assets and opportunity, mismanagement, minority shareholder disputes, and dissolution and accounting;
Tried and arbitrated numerous breach of contract disputes;
Prosecuted claims of commercial bribery, anti-trust and RICO on behalf of food processor against competitors;
Successfully arbitrated multi-million dollar earn-out payment on behalf of the selling shareholders of software company;
Represented businesses involving employee embezzlement and misappropriation of trade secrets;
Prosecuted breaches of distributorship contracts against non-complying and wayward distributors.
Obtained early dismissal with prejudice on behalf of publicly-traded company in securities class action lawsuit;
Successfully defended transit operator and bus manufacturer against claims alleging negligent maintenance of motor vehicle fleets and design defects;
Represented business in administrative proceedings challenging state and local public contract bid procedures and awards.
Dale’s focus on intellectual property and technology issues has covered the following areas:
Obtained jury verdict in copyright case involving computer software resulting in substantial monetary judgment for client;
Obtained preliminary injunction on behalf of software and electronic device manufacturer against distributor related to trademark infringement, counterfeiting, and unfair business practices;
Enforced and defended against claims challenging enforceability of non-competition agreements;
Prosecuted and defended numerous actions for trade secret violations, breach of contract, interference with prospective economic advantage, and unjust enrichment;
Successfully arbitrated against claims concerning corporate mismanagement and ownership of trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights;
Co-chaired defense of patent infringement cases;
Defended against competitor claims of wrongfully-obtained trade secrets;
Successfully obtained insurance coverage and defended various nonprofit organizations against claims that clients’ marketing materials violated other charities’ trademarks or confidential business information.
Real estate litigation is another area of law in which Dale has accrued extensive experience, including:
Successfully enforced land sale contract in jury trial;
Prevailed in jury trial involving commercial landlord/tenant disputes resulting in substantial verdict for landlord;
Tried and arbitrated limited partnership disputes, including breaches of fiduciary duty, dissolution, expulsion, and accounting;
Boundary and easement disputes;
Real estate investment fraud;
Environmental and hazardous waste litigation.
State Bar of California, Intellectual Property Law and Litigation Sections Member
State Bar of California, Litigation FormerExecutive Committee Member
Sacramento County Bar Association, Intellectual Property Law Section Member
Golden Empire Council Boy Scouts of America Member of Board of Directors
Meritas, Sacramento Member
Awards
The Best Lawyers in America®, 2009-2022, 2024 (Commercial Litigation; Litigation – Banking and Finance)
Sacramento Magazine’s Top Lawyers List, 2015-2017, 2021 – 2023 – Business Litigation
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 25 of its attorneys have been recognized in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, and eight attorneys have been named to the 2024 edition of the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America. Three attorneys have also named “Lawyer of…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 31 of its attorneys have been selected to the 2023 Sacramento Magazine Top Lawyers list. Weintraub’s attorneys are recognized in various categories, including Business/Corporate law, Employment & Labor law, Estate Planning & Probate law, and Real Estate law. The complete roster of Weintraub…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 47 of the Firm’s attorneys have been selected to the 2023 Northern California Super Lawyers® and Rising Star lists. These lists, selected annually on a state-by-state basis, recognize outstanding attorneys who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement in…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 19 of its attorneys have been recognized in the 29th edition of The Best Lawyers in America®. Additionally, six of our attorneys have been named to the third edition of the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America, and one attorney, Kay Brooks, was named the…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 28 of its attorneys have been selected for inclusion in the Top Lawyers 2022 list from Sacramento Magazine. Ten of the listed Weintraub attorneys are recognized in multiple practice areas. The Top Lawyers list, featured each year by Sacramento Magazine, recognizes prominent attorneys in the…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 37 of its attorneys have been recognized on the 2022 Northern California Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars lists. Several Weintraub attorneys also received special recognition on Super Lawyers “Top” lists, including six attorneys named to the Sacramento Top 25 Super Lawyers (Gary L.…
Sacramento, CA (August 19, 2021) – Weintraub Tobin, a leading California full-service law firm, is pleased to announce that 16 attorneys have been included in the 2022 edition of Best Lawyers in America and 6 Weintraub attorneys have been included in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch. Weintraub Tobin’s recognized Best Lawyers…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 26 of its attorneys have been recognized as 2021 Top Lawyers by Sacramento Magazine, including 8 attorneys recognized in multiple practices. Voting for Top Lawyers was managed by Professional Research Services and was open to all licensed attorneys in Sacramento. Voters were asked…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 38 of its attorneys have been included on the 2021 Super Lawyers and Rising Star lists for outstanding attorneys in Northern California. In addition, 4 Weintraub Tobin attorneys received special recognition on Northern California and Sacramento “Top” lists. Weintraub attorneys represent 16 percent…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 33 Weintraub Tobin attorneys have been included on the 2020 Super Lawyers and Rising Star lists for outstanding attorneys in Northern California. In addition, 5 Weintraub Tobin attorneys received special recognition on Northern California and Sacramento “Top” lists. Weintraub attorneys represent 20 percent of…
SACRAMENTO, California – Weintraub Tobin congratulates its 14 attorneys who have been included in Sacramento Business Journal’s Best of the Bar 2019. Attorneys selected to the 2019 Best of the Bar list include Gary L. Bradus, Kay U. Brooks ,Dale C. Campbell, Christopher Chediak, Janet Z. Chediak, Jim Clarke,Edward J.…
SACRAMENTO, CA (August 15, 2019) – Weintraub Tobin, a leading California full-service law firm, is pleased to announce that 19 of our attorneys have been recognized on the 2020 The Best Lawyers in America list. In addition, Weintraub Tobin attorney Christopher Chediak was named the Best Lawyers® 2020 “Lawyer of…
The United States Supreme Court was presented with the question of who has the burden of proof when a licensee files an action seeking a declaration of non-infringement against the patentee. In Medtronic Inc. v. Mirowski Family Ventures, 187 L.Ed.2d 703 (Jan. 22, 2014), the Supreme Court reviewed a decision…
On July 31, 2012, the Ninth Circuit issued its ruling protecting the right of privacy held by collegiate athletes against the use of their likeness in connection with video games. (Keller v. Electronic Arts, Inc. (2013) 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 10-15387. This decision joins the Third Circuit’s decision in…
A central issue in all trade secret litigation is the adequacy of a plaintiff’s pre-discovery disclosure of the alleged trade secrets required by California Code of Civil Procedure section 2019.210. Section 2019.210 provides that a plaintiff suing for misappropriation of trade secrets must identify the alleged trade secrets with “reasonable…
A central issue in all trade secret litigation is the adequacy of plaintiff’s pre-discovery disclosure of the alleged trade secrets. The Fourth District Court of Appeal has contributed to the growing body of case law interpreting the adequacy of the initial trade secret disclosure required by California Code of Civil…
Is the work product of an attorney always protected? No, according to the First Circuit in a decision which may draw the attention of the U. S. Supreme Court. The First Circuit, sitting en banc (the “Court”) ruled that the attorney work product doctrine did not protect tax accrual work…
State rules concerning electronic discovery just got clearer. On June 29, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the Electronic Discovery Act (the “Act”), which became effective immediately. Just last year, the Governor vetoed an almost identical version of the Act in order to focus more attention on the budget crisis. Of course,…
Expert discovery in federal court may change dramatically if proposed amendments are adopted. The Civil Rules Advisory Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States (the “Committee”) has issued proposed amendments to Rule 26, which are now published for public comment. The Committee report and proposed amendments can be…
By: Dale C. Campbell and Serena Crouch, Third Year Law Student at McGeorge School of Law Internet users and privacy advocates across the nation fear they are losing the continuing battle to protect internet privacy rights. A court decision in a lawsuit between Viacom and YouTube.com is the most recent…
Search engine websites sell keywords as a component of their advertising programs. By purchasing an advertising keyword, a business’s advertisement will appear next to the search results whenever a person enters the advertising keyword as a search term. Trademark questions arise whenever a competitor purchases an advertisement keyword that is…
Lawyers can’t turn around without being bombarded with CLE brochures announcing yet another e-discovery workshop. Electronic discovery is a new medium for storing information, but the time-tested rules concerning an attorney’s ethical duty to the court and opposing counsel in connection with discovery have not changed. On January 7, 2008,…
Can a company go too far in preventing its employees from being hired away by its customers? The Fourth District Court of Appeal recently answered, “yes,” but gave some indication where the line of permissible restrictions is crossed. (VL Systems, Inc. v. Unisen, Inc. (June 2007) 152 Cal.App.4th 708.) The…
Intellectual property litigation relies heavily upon the use of expert testimony. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently analyzed the intersection of Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 702 and the ruling in Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993) (“Daubert”) concerning the admissibility of expert testimony and…
Custom and customized computer programs create unique challenges under the Copyright Act. More and more companies have custom software written by outside programmers to automate the company’s unique business processes. Great care should be taken when a company uses outside vendors, rather than its own employees, to create the custom…