Bernard H. Chao

Bernard H. Chao is a Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, with extensive prior experience in patent litigation. His practice and scholarship focus on patent law, privacy law, remedies, and jury decision-making, including patent eligibility for software, patent remedies, and the extraterritorial reach of U.S. patent law. His tracked case appearances primarily involve plaintiff-side representation, as demonstrated by his role as counsel for Kannuu Pty Ltd. in patent infringement litigation.

Prior to his academic career, Professor Chao practiced law in Silicon Valley for nearly two decades, litigating high-stakes patent cases at firms such as Wilson, Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Pennie & Edmonds. He also served as Vice President of Legal Strategy at Covad Communications and co-founded his own boutique firm, Chao Hadidi Stark & Barker LLP. The tracked case appearances list "Progress" as a firm affiliation in the context of his role as Counsel and Special Counsel; however, his prominent professional profile is currently as an academic. A notable engagement includes his role as a court-appointed Special Master in In Re Katz Interactive Call Processing Patent Litigation, described as one of the largest patent multidistrict litigations in U.S. history. In his tracked case, Kannuu Pty Ltd. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al., he represented the plaintiff in a dispute concerning remote control search-and-navigation technology, which involved inter partes review (IPR) proceedings where the asserted patents were ultimately invalidated. He also moderated a roundtable discussion on post-grant procedures under the America Invents Act with PTAB Administrative Law Judges in 2014.

Professor Chao holds a J.D. from Duke University School of Law and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University. He is admitted to practice in the State of California, before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth and Federal Circuits, and various U.S. District Courts.