Laura A. Wytsma

Laura A. Wytsma — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Laura Wytsma is a Los Angeles-based patent and appellate trial lawyer whose practice centers on high-stakes IP litigation in federal court, with a particular emphasis on patent and appellate work. Firm and bar sources describe her as a lead trial counsel who has represented technology-sector operating companies — including software, satellite, automotive, sporting goods, and defense-contractor clients — in more than 50 patent cases across California, Delaware, Texas, and elsewhere. Her tracked matters involve software/data-compression patents (Realtime Data's digital-data-compression portfolio), and publicly reported matters include defending clients in § 101 eligibility battles and representing technology companies in trade secret and IP litigation.

Side and firm context. Her tracked docket is entirely defendant-side (2 of 2 appearances), defending operating companies against NPE assertions. She is currently a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in Los Angeles (joined February 2024). The tracked Carbonite appearances occurred while she was a partner at Venable (2021–2024); earlier career stops include Dentons, Loeb & Loeb (partner, 2007), and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, which she joined in 1998 after beginning her legal career in the DOJ Honors Program at the former INS.

Notable matters. Her most prominent tracked engagement is Realtime Data, LLC v. Carbonite, Inc., where she served as counsel and later appellate counsel for defendant Carbonite in the District of Massachusetts and at the Federal Circuit (No. 23-1232). The underlying claims were dismissed on § 101 grounds — a result the Federal Circuit affirmed in the parallel Realtime Data v. Array Networks appeal (Fed. Cir. Aug. 2, 2023, with Judge Newman dissenting) — and Realtime's separate appeal involving Carbonite (23-1232) was voluntarily dismissed in October 2023. Other verifiable, non-tracked appearances include representing patent owner Sanderling Management before the Federal Circuit and representing Sony in litigation reported by Reuters (2025), but these fall outside her tracked case list and are noted only as public-docket context.

PTAB/IPR and credentials. Wytsma is not a USPTO-registered practitioner and does not lead IPRs; she has appeared at the PTAB only via pro hac vice as back-up counsel for a patent owner (e.g., in Snap Inc. v. Sanderling Management, IPR2021-00778/-779), so her IPR exposure is limited and secondary to her district-court and appellate practice. She earned her J.D. (with distinction) from George Mason University School of Law in 1996 and has been admitted in California since 1997; her B.S. is from George Mason University (1993).