Fenwick & West is deeply entwined with the history of software development in Silicon Valley:

• Created the first "shrinkwrap" license agreement in 1976—for client Apple Computer
• Negotiated one of the first software license agreements with 19-year old Harvard entrepreneur Bill Gates
• Created the first software "clean room" protocols—for client Wang Laboratories—which later became the industry standard for developing software to withstand IP infringement claims
• Secured the first copyright registration for a graphical interface—for client Apple Computer
• Registered one of the first business method patents for software
• Filed groundbreaking IPOs for companies like Oracle, eBay, Intuit and Macromedia
• Handled some of the earliest, watershed software IP infringement battles, including Lotus v. Borland, Apple Computer v. Microsoft, A&M v. Napster, Adobe v. Macromedia and Brown Bag Software v. Symantec
• Handled the largest software industry merger in history—Symantec's $13 billion acquisition of VERITAS

Over the thirty-year history of Fenwick & West, the firm has pioneered numerous additional financing, tax, copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret protocols that have helped software companies retain ownership over their products and build value into what are now some of the largest companies in the world.

Today, Fenwick & West is the premier law firm for the software industry. Many of our attorneys have programming, computer science, electrical engineering or business backgrounds that allow us to provide practical, usable advice to software companies. Our clients range from first-time entrepreneurs to public corporations, universities and research institutions, as well as the leading investors and underwriters to the software industry.

Our areas of expertise within the software industry include:

• Bioinformatics
• Consumer Productivity Applications
• Data Mining and Business Intelligence
• Electronic Design Automation
• Enterprise and Business Services
• Gaming and Interactive Entertainment
• Internet and eCommerce
• Networking, Communications and Connectivity
• Open Source
• Operating Systems
• Security