Michael J. Dalton, Attorney

Michael J. Dalton is a partner in Donahue Gallagher Woods LLP, where he specializes in business and corporate transactions, and intellectual property law, with an emphasis on trademarks. He represents a diverse business clientele, including software developers, retailers, real estate companies, and professional service providers.

Mr. Dalton advises start-up companies on business structures. He has extensive experience in forming business entities, including corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies. He also has extensive experience in business acquisitions and dispositions, having drafted and negotiated numerous stock purchase and asset purchase agreements for clients in a variety of industries.

Mr. Dalton has an active intellectual property practice emphasizing trademarks and unfair competition. In addition to counseling clients on intellectual property matters, he conducts national and international trademark searches, advises clients regarding trade name and trademark selection and infringement issues, and prosecutes federal trademark applications for both technology and non-technology companies. He has worked with numerous companies, including major retailers, in developing trademark protection strategies for their major trademark and service marks. Mr. Dalton has drafted numerous agreements involving trademark rights, including trademark licensing agreements and trademark co-existence agreements. He has also successfully prosecuted hundreds of federal trademark applications. He serves as outside trademark counsel to numerous companies, including Geoworks Corporation.

He also serves as outside corporate counsel to several companies, including Prudential California Realty (Mason-McDuffie Real Estate, Inc.), one of the Bay Area's largest residential brokerage companies, Decision Development Corporation, an educational multimedia software developer, and Deep Ocean Engineering, a manufacturer of remotely operated vehicles used for underwater exploration. He provides a broad range of legal services related to business ownership, operations and management, including drafting and negotiating employment agreements, incentive compensation plans, and joint venture agreements.

Mr. Dalton has practiced with Donahue Gallagher Woods LLP since 1984, becoming a partner in 1991. He received his law degree in 1984 from Boalt Hall, University of California at Berkeley. During law school, he served as Supreme Court Editor of the California Law Review. He earned a Master of Arts degree from U.C. Berkeley in 1979 and a Bachelor of Arts degree from U.C. Berkeley in 1977.

He is a member of the State Bar of California (Corporate and Intellectual Property Sections) and the Alameda County Bar Association, and sits on the Board of Directors of and serves as pro bono counsel to the Friends of the Oakland Public Library. He is fluent in French, and conversant in German and Italian. Since 1997, Mr. Dalton has been the firm's Chief Operations Officer.