Several software & hardware firms I know are looking for high-quality
patent counsel to help FILE patents in the hardware & software
industries.

Can someone identify ten of the highest quality patent law firms in
the San Francisco Bay Area that companies interesting in developing
patents should include in their patent-counsel interview process?

Hello.

Intellectual Property Today has a listing of the Top Patent Firms in
the U.S., ranked by number of patents issued.
http://www.iptoday.com/toprank2003.pdf

(This document is in PDF format, so the Adobe Acrobat Reader is
required. If you don't have that, visit:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html )

Using that list along with other sources such as the U.S. Patent &
Trademark Office [ http://www.uspto.gov/go/attorney/region/att-CA.txt
] , I was able to determine which of these firms have major patent
practices in the S.F. Bay Area.

Here are the top patent firms in the Bay Area:

Burns, Doane, Swecker & Mathis (#4 on the IP Today list)
Redwood Shore office:
333 Twin Dolphin Drive, Suite 700
Redwood Shores, CA 94065-1418
Tel: (650) 622-2300
Fax: (650) 622-2499
http://www.burnsdoane.com/

Fish & Richardson (#11 on the IP Today list)
500 Arguello Street, Suite 500
Redwood City, CA 94063
Tel: (650) 839-5070
Fax: (650) 839-5071
http://www.fr.com/

Pillsbury Winthrop (#13 on the IP Today list)
2475 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1114
P: 650.233.4500
http://www.pillsburywinthrop.com/

Kenyon & Kenyon (#19)
333 W. San Carlos Street, Suite 600
San Jose, CA 95110
Tel: (408) 975-7500
Fax: (408) 975-7501
http://www.kenyon.com

Morrison & Foerster (#38)
755 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304-1018
Phone: (650) 813-5600
Fax: (650) 494-0792
http://www.mofo.com/

Skjerven Morrill MacPherson (#47)
Three Embarcadero Center, 28th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
phone: 415.217.6000
facsimile: 415.434.0646
http://www.skjerven.com/

Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich (#107)
2000 University Avenue
East Palo Alto, CA 94303
Tel: 650.833.2000
Fax: 650.833.2001
http://www.gcwf.com/

Fish & Neave (#117)
525 University Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Tel: (650) 617-4000
Fax: (650) 617-4090
http://www.fishneave.com/

Fenwick & West (#174)
Silicon Valley Center
801 California St.
Mountain View, California 94041
Phone: 650.988.8500
Fax: 650.938.5200
http://www.fenwick.com/

Squire Sanders & Dempsey (#202)
600 Hansen Way
Palo Alto, California 94304-1043
Tel. 650.856.6500
Fax. 650.843.8777
http://www.ssd.com/

Park Vaughan & Fleming (#217)
702 Marshall Street Suite 310
Redwood City, CA  94063
Telephone: (650) 474-1973
Facsimile: (650) 474-1976 
http://www.parklegal.com/

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (#224)
650 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304-1050
Phone | 650-493-9300
Fax| 650-493-6811
http://www.wsgr.com/

----------------------

Although it seems to have been omitted from the IP Today list, San
Francisco's Townsend and Townsend and Crew is a top patent firm
according to an alternate list produced by patentratings.com [
http://www.patentratings.com/cgi-bin/public/003.cgi?a=1&b=06 ]:

Townsend and Townsend and Crew 
Two Embarcadero Center
Eighth Floor
San Francisco, CA
94111-3834
tel  415.576.0200
fax 415.576.0300 
http://www.townsend.com/



----------------------

sources:
IP Today
http://www.iptoday.com/toprank2003.pdf
patentratings.com 
http://www.patentratings.com/cgi-bin/public/003.cgi?a=1&b=06 
The Recorder
http://www.therecorder.com/townsend.html

-----------

search terms:
"top patent", "san francisco"
"patent firms", pillsbury, morrison, sonsini
patents,  pillsbury, morrison, sonsini

I hope this helps.

Appears to be a solid answer for top patent firms.

My only concern is that the research seeks out the highest VOLUME
patent firms, as opposed to highest QUALITY as I requested.  I suspect
there are some noteworthy speciality firms that are much smaller and
do less volume, but offer higehr quality.  That's the only reason I
gave the research 4 stars instead of 5.

Thank you for the tip.

I understand your point about quality versus quantity.  I did search
for some sort of qualitative ranking, but alas none seemed to be
available.  My feeling on this is that customers tend to "vote with
their feet," so the firms that are doing a lot of business are
probably doing something right in terms of service quality.

A review of their web site indicates taht Park Vaughan & Fleming
actually is a very small firm, so it's quite impressive that they do
enough patents to rank 217th on the IP Today list.

Park Vaughan & Fleming (#217)
702 Marshall Street Suite 310
Redwood City, CA  94063
Telephone: (650) 474-1973
Facsimile: (650) 474-1976 
http://www.parklegal.com/