Sarah E. Piepmeier

Sarah E. Piepmeier is a veteran intellectual property trial lawyer and a partner at Perkins Coie in San Francisco. Her practice concentrates on high-stakes patent litigation, where she primarily defends major technology companies in federal district courts across the U.S. and before the International Trade Commission. Ms. Piepmeier’s technical focus areas include semiconductors, networking, wireless standards, social networking, relational databases, and encryption software. She has represented a number of Fortune 500 technology companies, including Intel, Cisco, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, and Google.

Consistent with the provided data showing her on the defense side, Ms. Piepmeier has a long track record of representing established technology corporations against infringement claims. The single tracked case, Imaginear Inc v. Niantic Inc, reflects this focus. In that litigation, Ms. Piepmeier's client Niantic, the publisher of Pokémon GO, successfully invalidated several of ImagineAR's asserted augmented reality patents and secured dismissal of others. Other notable results include securing a dismissal for Netflix in a patent case and winning a motion to dismiss for a major social networking company on Section 101 grounds in the Western District of Texas.

Ms. Piepmeier has significant experience leveraging Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings to benefit her clients' litigation strategies. Her professional biography notes she has successfully resolved multi-patent lawsuits after filing inter partes reviews (IPRs) and invalidated a patent via an IPR on the eve of trial for a major networking company. In the Imaginear v. Niantic matter, her client also filed an IPR against an ImagineAR patent.

Ms. Piepmeier began her career as an associate at Perkins Coie, later became a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and rejoined Perkins Coie in 2019. She earned her J.D. from the New York University School of Law and her B.A. from Wellesley College. She is a member of the State Bar of California.