Sasha G. Rao

Rao heads her firm’s national intellectual property and technology practice, where she represents major tech clients, such as HP Inc., Block Inc. and Chime Financial Inc., including handling significant litigation and advising on broad business and IP strategy.

Last year she succeeded in extricating HP from a broad patent infringement lawsuit brought by a Taiwanese optical lens maker challenging lenses in her client’s webcams. First, she won a Federal Circuit order moving the case from Texas to Northern California and then obtained a favorable settlement after filing for summary judgment. Largan Precision Co. Ltd v. Ability Opto-Electronics Technology Co. Ltd., 4:19-cv- 00696 (E.D. Texas, filed Sept. 25, 2019)

Rao can be a tough litigator. When a pair of clients were sued for allegedly infringing four patents dealing with cybersecurity products, she hit the plaintiff with counterclaims for non-infringement, invalidity and antitrust. “We got the other side incentivized to reach a very favorable settlement for our client,” she said. High Sec Labs Ltd. v. iPGARD Inc., 2:20-cv-01797 (D. Nev., filed Sept. 25, 2020)

She also works with startups and young companies to develop their intellectual property and build their relationships with clients, vendors and other players. “I represent clients in all stages of their evolution as a business, from startup to a mature company,” Rao said.

One of her favorite projects right now is working with a company that creates floating cities. Oceanix Ltd. has an agreement with the city of Busan in South Korea to build its first prototype there. “I have been excitedly working with them on all their partnerships concerning that floating city, including with all the vendors,” she said.

Rao said she is committed to representing emerging tech companies that are “helping humans live longer, more productive lives.” Besides Oceanix, clients include Attune Neruosciences Inc., which is developing a noninvasive brain-stimulation device to improve sleep patterns, and A³ by Airbus LLC, which successfully prototyped the Vahana flying car.

She helps Volta Charging, which makes charging stations for electric vehicles, with IP strategy, dispute avoidance, trademarks and acquisitions, she said.

Rao and her group also handle IP strategy, transactions and patent and trademark prosecutions for Spartan Radar, which is developing “sparse array radar” that is cheaper than the lidar now often used to guide modern cars and is able to work well in poor weather.

She developed this side of her practice initially because she was interested in investing in companies and funds working on climate change, aging, transportation concerns and other issues. She first invested in Casetext Inc., which uses artificial intelligence to power legal research. Rao is now the company’s general counsel.

“If you were to look for a thesis that underlies all my clients, it’s [their] fundamental belief in science,” she said. “The core principle is [using] science to improve humanity.”

– Don DeBenedictis