Yimeng Dou

Yimeng Dou is a partner in the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, based in their Los Angeles office. Her practice focuses on high-stakes patent, copyright, trade secret, and trademark litigation, and includes appearances before the United States Patent and Trademark Office for post-grant proceedings and the International Trade Commission. With a Ph.D. in Information and Computer Science, her technical expertise is particularly suited to complex technologies, including software, container virtualization, telecommunications (e.g., two-way radio), and automatic test equipment, as well as mechanical and industrial equipment.

Ms. Dou handles patent litigation for both plaintiffs and defendants. Her experience includes representing plaintiffs, such as a global manufacturer of agricultural and industrial equipment, where she secured a $16.3 million damages award in a patent infringement case. She has also defended clients against infringement claims, as evidenced by her representation of International Business Machines Corporation in VirtaMove Corp. v. International Business Machines Corporation, a dispute concerning container virtualization technology that was ultimately dismissed with prejudice via joint stipulation. Additionally, she has successfully secured dismissals for clients like Epic Games in multi-patent litigation.

Her practice regularly involves post-grant proceedings, including Inter Partes Reviews (IPRs), where she has represented petitioners, such as Red Hat, Inc., in challenging patents like those held by Competitive Access Systems Inc. She has also been instrumental in invalidating patents through IPRs, such as an automatic test equipment patent for a client. Ms. Dou has contributed to several winning trial teams, including a $764 million trade secret misappropriation and copyright infringement jury trial for a two-way radio industry leader, and has successfully argued appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Ms. Dou earned her J.D. in 2012 from the University of California, Irvine, where she also received her Ph.D. (2006) and M.S. (2003) in Information and Computer Science. She is admitted to practice in California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Ninth Circuit, and several U.S. District Courts.