Christopher Kao

Christopher Kao is based in Pillsbury’s San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices, where he focuses on intellectual property and complex commercial litigation. Chris is the co-leader of Pillsbury’s Taiwan practice.

Chris is an experienced first-chair trial lawyer representing technology companies in patent, copyright, trademark and trade secrets litigation, and other high-stakes commercial disputes.

He has represented companies in the computer hardware and software, semiconductor, telecommunications, biotechnology, and consumer products industries in federal and state courts throughout the country, the U.S. International Trade Commission, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

He has extensive experience litigating Covered Business Method and inter partes review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Chris also regularly advises clients on privacy and cybersecurity issues and is designated a Certified International Privacy Professional/US by the IAPP. Before joining Pillsbury, Chris was the Office Managing Partner of another firm’s Silicon Valley office.

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE :

• Served as counsel for leading technology companies in consolidated patent infringement actions related to distributed processing technology; obtained judgment on the pleadings invalidating all asserted patents for claiming unpatentable subject matter. The judgment was affirmed by the Federal Circuit (N.D. Cal.).
• Served as counsel for social networking company in patent infringement action relating to online marketplaces. Obtained dismissal of litigation after successfully invalidating the asserted patent in a Covered Business Method review before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (D. Del.).
• Served as counsel for e-commerce company in a patent infringement action relating to internet database patents. Obtained summary judgment invalidating all asserted patents; the judgment was affirmed by the Federal Circuit (N.D. Cal.).
• Served as counsel for enterprise software company in a patent infringement action relating to metadata removal and document comparison technology. Filed petitions for inter partes review challenging asserted patents; petitions were instituted by PTAB (D. Del.).
• Served as counsel for memory device company in patent and antitrust litigation relating to solid-state drive and DRAM technology (C.D. Cal.).
• Served as counsel for memory device company in patent litigation relating to solid-state drive and DRAM technology (C.D. Cal.).
• Served as counsel for dental technology companies in a patent infringement action relating to dental drill assistance technology (D. Del.).
• Served as counsel for an iternet storage company in trademark cancellation proceedings (TTAB).
• Served as counsel for memory device company in a trademark infringement action (N.D. Cal.).
• Served as counsel for a grocery store chain in a trademark infringement action (N.D. Cal.).
• Served as counsel for an e-commerce company in a copyright infringement and website terms of use action concerning the unauthorized scraping and redistribution of online content (N.D. Cal.).
• Served as counsel for Taiwanese electronics company in a trade secrets action concerning power technology (N.D. Cal.).
• Served as counsel for a financial company in a trade secrets action concerning theft of business and customer information (Cal. Super. Ct.).
• Served as counsel for a pollution control technology company and individual defendants in a trade secrets action concerning diesel emissions reduction technology (JAMS Arbitration).

Associations :

• American Bar Association
• Bar Association of San Francisco
• San Francisco Bay Area Intellectual Property American Inn of Court
• National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
• Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area

EDUCATION :

• J.D., Harvard Law School, 1999
• B.A., Government and History, Dartmouth College, 1996

ADMISSIONS : California, New York

COURTS :

• United States Supreme Court
• United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
• Registered Foreign Attorney in Taiwan (Member of Taipei Bar Association)
• United States District Court for the District of Colorado

CLERKSHIPS : Law clerk for the Honorable Carol B. Amon, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (2000-2001).