Avatar

Mark Chandler

Retired | Executive Vice President

Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

Mark Chandler retired from his role as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Cisco in May 2021. Chandler joined Cisco in 1996, when Cisco acquired StrataCom, Inc., where he had been general counsel. Prior to StrataCom, he served for six years as vice president of corporate development and general counsel for Maxtor Corporation, a Fortune 500 hard disk drive manufacturer. Chandler is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council for Stanford Law School, member of the Governing Council of the American Bar Association Center for Innovation, Board of Directors of Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, and the Board of Trustees for Belmont Hill School in Belmont, Mass. He previously served as a member of the Board of the Silicon Valley Law Foundation, member of the U.S. Department of Commerce Manufacturing Council, member and chairman of the City of Palo Alto Planning Commission, and member of the Palo Alto Utilities Advisory Commission. In spring 2016, he was a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School. In 2010, The National Law Journal named him one of the 40 Most Influential Lawyers of the Decade, and in 2013, American Lawyer numbered him among the Top 50 Big Law Innovators of the Last 50 Years. In 2018, he received the Burton Legends in Law Award. Chandler received a JD degree from Stanford Law School in 1981 and a BA degree in economics from Harvard College in 1978.

Articles

A Tipping Point in Rebalancing Our Patent System

2 min read

President Obama yesterday provided executive leadership on an issue that is of critical importance to American businesses, consumers and the U.S. economy. The U.S. patent system has long been held up as a model for promoting ingenuity and encouraging our national history of invention and entrepreneurship.  Recently, however, abusive patent litigation brought who have figured […]

October 17, 2012

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Cisco Submits Letter to the Washington Post

1 min read

Cisco submitted the following Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post: October 17, 2012 Washington Post Letter to the Editor, In a page one article last Thursday entitled, “US rivals lobby against Chinese firm,” the Post implies that Cisco engaged in a lobbying campaign against Huawei on Capitol Hill regarding national security issues, and […]

October 11, 2012

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Huawei and Cisco’s Source Code: Correcting the Record

3 min read

Last week, I wrote about statements made by Charles Ding, Huawei’s Senior Vice President and Chief Representative in the U.S., Mr. Ding explained the 2003-2004 intellectual property litigation between Cisco and Huawei as follows: “Huawei provided our source code of our products to Cisco for review and the results were that there was not any […]

October 1, 2012

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Cisco Suggests Huawei Release Court Report on Intellectual Property Misuse

2 min read

To facilitate the understanding about what actually happened in the Cisco v. Huawei litigation and allow Huawei to itself clear up any confusion, we waive any confidentiality requirement for the sealed report and suggest that Huawei itself have the expert's complete final report put into the public domain.

September 13, 2012

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Why Apple-Samsung Proves that the Patent System Can Work

2 min read

The Apple-Samsung case not only proves that our system can still work but also reflects the genius behind our patent system.

February 12, 2012

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Helping the Open Internet to Thrive

3 min read

Cisco is proud that our employees have played leading roles in the creation of interoperability standards, just as they have invented many of the foundational technologies used in the global data network.

February 8, 2012

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Patent Fees Should Cover PTO Expenses

1 min read

The fees paid by users of the PTO should cover the cost of the services the PTO provides, and the fees, once paid, should actually be available to the PTO to provide those services and not diverted to other purposes.

July 6, 2011

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Cisco Responds to Wall Street Journal Article on China

1 min read

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal explores how US companies, including Cisco, are working with the Chongqing government in a wide-ranging public infrastructure project.   First, as a matter of policy, Cisco has not and will not sell video surveillance cameras or video surveillance management software in its public infrastructure projects in China.  We were […]

Cisco Supports Freedom of Expression, an Open Internet and Human Rights

2 min read

First things first – Cisco believes in the Internet and its ability to educate, unite, empower, challenge, disrupt, collaborate, create and inspire, and the equipment we provide helps the Internet work. Cisco strongly supports free expression and open communication on the Internet. We are proud to have played a leading role in helping to make […]

January 28, 2011

HIGH TECH POLICY

Standards Play a Vital Role in Fueling Innovation

3 min read

On Tuesday morning I was honored to represent Cisco in a roundtable discussion sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) about the role of the federal government in standards.  (Watch the webcast here.) Standards play a vital role in fueling innovation, promoting competition, lowering technology costs and accelerating market growth – particularly when […]

July 19, 2010

HIGH TECH POLICY

Cisco welcomes launch of first ever U.S. National IP Strategy

2 min read

In a fascinating profile of Thomas Edison that appeared recently in Time Magazine I was reminded once again of Edison’s importance to America’s historic strength in science, innovation and discovery. Edison’s goal was to create a “minor invention” every ten days and a “major invention” every six months.  His track record was astounding:  1,093 total […]

April 30, 2009

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

America’s Continued Lead in Innovation Requires Fixes to Flaws in Patent System

3 min read

This week, in a remarkable speech to the National Academy of Sciences, President Obama laid out a bold vision for America to maintain its global lead in innovation. In his remarks, the President said, “Scientific innovation offers us a chance to achieve prosperity. It has offered us benefits that have improved our health and our […]