Sumedha Ahuja

Professional Summary

Sumedha Ahuja — Patent Litigation & Prosecution Practice

Specialty / focus areas. Ahuja is a partner in Perkins Coie's Seattle office (the firm has since combined with Ashurst and now operates as Ashurst Perkins Coie LLP) and firmwide co-chair of its Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Robotics group. Her practice centers on strategic patent portfolio management and prosecution of computer software, internet, and AI/ML inventions, with additional technical experience in telecommunications, digital health, fintech/blockchain, IoT, and cloud computing. Prior to law she was a software engineer at Sapient Corp. and did graduate ML research at McGill, which sources describe as informing her AI patent work. Her only tracked litigation appearance — counsel for Microsoft in Microsoft Corporation et al. v. InterDigital Patent Holdings Inc. — aligns with her software/telecom focus.

Side preference. The single tracked appearance is plaintiff-side work for Microsoft, an operating company, in its standards/FRAND dispute with InterDigital. Firm-bio sources indicate she otherwise serves both large operating companies and startups, and has "represented both patent owners and petitioners" at the PTAB, so she does not fit a pure plaintiff/NPE or defendant profile.

Firm context & notable matters. Ahuja joined Perkins Coie after associate stints at Goodwin Procter and Akin Gump in Washington, D.C. Her tracked matter is the Microsoft–InterDigital litigation over wireless standard-essential patents — part of a broader dispute that included Microsoft's antitrust/FRAND complaint in Delaware, parallel ITC proceedings, and a wave of Microsoft-filed IPRs against InterDigital patents (e.g., IPR2024-00305/00306). PTAB records show final written decisions in some of those IPRs finding InterDigital claims unpatentable, and the Federal Circuit appeal (No. 25-2049) was dismissed by stipulation in late 2025 following settlement.

PTAB/IPR experience. PTAB work is a core part of her practice; her firm bio states she has appeared in more than two dozen post-grant proceedings (IPRs and CBM reviews), drafting successful petitions and patent owner responses and taking/defending expert depositions.

Bar / education. Admitted in Washington, D.C. and Washington state, and registered with the USPTO; J.D., George Washington University Law School (2012), M.S. Computer Science, McGill University (2005), B.Tech., Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (2003).