Patrick M. Ryan

San Francisco

Commercial, Antitrust, IP & Constitutional Litigation

Patrick M. Ryan is a principal, shareholder and head of the litigation, IP protection and antitrust groups at

Bartko Zankel Bunzel & Miller. Working on both plaintiff- and defense-side cases, he joined the 44-attorney commercial litigation boutique in 2014.

He was part of the team that obtained a 9-0 jury win for a health system defendant in a massive, billion-dollar antitrust class action. The result was a 2023 Daily Journal Top Verdict. Sidibe v. Sutter Health, 3:12-cv-04854 (N.D. Cal., filed Sept. 17, 2012).

Ryan is currently representing the graphic designer who created the popular "Blooming Elegant" type fonts, only to have them allegedly misappropriated by an online marketplace that sold millions of dollars' worth of the designs. In July, a federal judge rejected the defendant's second motion to dismiss the case. Laatz et al. v. Zazzle Inc. et al., 5:22-cv-04844 (N.D. Cal., filed Aug. 24, 2022).

Designer Nicky Laatz' copyright claims are strong, Ryan said. "I love this case. It's almost like a detective novel." The complaint contends that Zazzle instructed an engineer to obtain a single-user license for the fonts in his own name, then loaded the software onto its server and sold it to millions of customers without permission or compensation to Laatz.

"It is such a gorgeous font. It looks like calligraphy," Ryan said. He spoke as he awaited the court's ruling on his summary judgment motion. "The damages are huge. This is the strongest plaintiff case I've had in 24 years of practice."

In another health care antitrust case, Ryan is on the plaintiff side as lead counsel for hospitals suing insurers for allegedly agreeing to manipulate markets, boycott providers and fix prices to restrain competition. VHS Liquidating Trust et al., v. Blue Cross Blue Shield Ass'n, et al., RG21106600 (Alameda Co. Super. Ct., filed July 27, 2021).

In June, the court rejected the defendants' second demurrer and motion to strike, leaving Ryan and his clients free to push forward for damages of more than $100 million. "That was a huge victory and we're storming ahead full force," he said. "We're up against Cravath, Kirkland and Mayer Brown and we're beating them at every turn."

--John Roemer