Sarah Piepmeier

Over nearly two decades, Piepmeier, now a Perkins Coie patent litigation partner, has devoted her practice to guiding technology companies through significant disputes. She has tried more than a dozen bet-the-company cases across the U.S.

She began her career as a Perkins Coie associate, then moved to Kirkland & Ellis LLP before returning to Perkins in 2019. In her active pro bono practice, she was a member of the plaintiffs’ trial team in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the case that reversed California’s ban on gay marriage.

She brought with her to Perkins Coie her longtime Cisco Systems Inc. client. Among other cases, she recently led Cisco’s successful defense in patent litigation brought by NetFuel Inc., a Los Gatos-based software company. NetFuel Inc. v. Cisco Systems Inc., 5:18-cv-02352 (N.D. Cal., filed April 18, 2018).

NetFuel alleged that Cisco infringed two of its software program “agent” patents used to monitor and manage computer networks. Its complaint called the patents “revolutionary.” Piepmeier and her team successfully moved to dismiss NetFuel’s willful infringement and pre-suit inducement claims and received a favorable Markman decision. In March 2020 U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila of San Jose granted Piepmeier’s Daubert motion in full, excluding NetFuel’s experts’ entire damages opinions and denying NetFuel’s request for leave to cure deficiencies in the opinions.

“The judge threw out the two theories that the plaintiff’s damages expert had, including for running royalties,” Piepmeier said. “Then the plaintiff tried to get the same information in through a fact witness, and the judge granted our motion to strike. When NetFuel couldn’t put on a damages theory, the case settled.”

Covid played a role, Piepmeier said. “Will there be a trial, and will it be remote? We weren’t sure, and then Judge Davila had to kick it [last fall] when the Bay Area had a spike in infections. We had to rejigger our case, and that kept us nimble.”

In pro bono work, Piepmeier successfully defended a non-profit group that provides diversity training to schools against claims a judge labeled “inflammatory” that the training is anti-white, anti-male and anti-Christian “and in fact teaches students, parents and faculty how to discriminate against these groups.” The judge dismissed the claims. Fair Education Santa Barbara Inc. v. Santa Barbara Unified School District, 19CV01875 (S. Barbara Super. Ct., filed April 8, 2019).

A decade later, Piepmeier says she still gets asked about her work on Perry v. Schwarzenegger as a civil rights landmark. “it comes up even when I’m doing recruiting,” she said. “Some lawyers I meet actually studied it in school.”

— John Roemer