Daily Journal Names Christopher Kao as One of California’s Top Intellectual Property Lawyers

The profile of Kao, who leads Pillsbury’s Intellectual Property Litigation practice, highlights his early work on NTP v. Research In Motion, a landmark patent dispute involving the reach of U.S. patent law and injunction standards, as well as his more recent victories in trade secrets and patent litigation. In one long-running trade secrets case, Kao described making a strategic pivot after a late evidentiary ruling.

“Although I think that ruling was wrong,” he said, “in the moment, we decided not to call the expert at all, and to simply argue our position in closing argument to the jury.” The jury ultimately adopted his damages figures exactly.

The article also pointed to Kao’s success in securing dismissals of patent claims on Section 101 grounds and leading Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings that invalidated asserted patents, helping reshape parallel district court litigation and achieve favorable resolutions for his clients.

Kao focuses his practice on intellectual property and complex commercial litigation. An experienced first-chair trial lawyer representing technology companies in patent, copyright, trademark and trade secrets litigation, among 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.