Widely recognized as one of Silicon Valley’s leading intellectual property lawyers, Sasha Rao has an established record of success for some of the world's top companies.
Chair of Maynard's nationwide Intellectual Property Practice, Sasha regularly leads intellectual property and commercial litigation for her clients, including cases involving patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, unfair competition, and complex commercial disputes.
Sasha is also regarded as a trusted advisor by her clients, ranging from tech start-ups to the largest multinational companies, on corporate, transactional, policy and regulatory matters, including IP aspects of mergers and acquisitions.
Sasha has tried cases in district courts throughout the U.S. Her strong science background has enabled her to develop effective courtroom strategies for cases involving technologies ranging from pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and biotechnology to computers, Internet, Web 3.0 and software. In the technology realm, Sasha has defended some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies in cases brought by competitors and non-practicing entities. In the realm of life sciences, Sasha has extensive experience in Hatch-Waxman/ANDA litigation and has represented generic and branded pharmaceutical companies in numerous patent cases.
Sasha's enthusiasm for cutting-edge technologies has led to her being recognized as one of the leading practitioners in the emerging fields of blockchain and crypto, artificial intelligence, and autonomy and robotics, including autonomous vehicles, drones, and UAVs, urban air mobility, and connected and artificially intelligent systems. Her legal subject matter expertise includes regulatory, policy, intellectual property, data rights, and legal strategy.
Sasha is registered to practice in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She also represents clients in Patent Office trials, including covered business method (CBM) and inter partes review (IPR) post-grant invalidity challenges available under the America Invents Act.
Sasha stands out as one of the top practitioners in her field. Chambers USA recognized Sasha in 2022 (and also 2021 and 2020) as a Leading Individual in Intellectual Property: Patent Litigation. She was also named by the Daily Journal in 2022 as one of California’s Top Intellectual Property Lawyers (having previously received this recognition in 2020, 2019 and 2013) and in 2019 as one of California’s Top Women Lawyers and Top Artificial Intelligence Lawyers.
Sasha was selected as an Intellectual Property Trailblazer for 2019 by the National Law Journal. The Recorder has recognized Sasha as one of the “Women Leaders in Tech Law” four times (2018, 2017, 2014 and 2013). She has been on the list of Super Lawyers since 2014 and was featured in the 2021 Northern California Super Lawyers Magazine. Sasha’s success and talents in the IP field have also earned her recognition by The Best Lawyers in America© in the area of Litigation: Intellectual Property (2017-present). She was also recognized as a “Trailblazer” by the South Asian Bar Association – Northern California (2016); an “IP Star” by Managing IP magazine (2013–present); and one of the “Top 250 Women in IP” by IP Stars (2013–present).
“I completely trust Sasha, she is a total professional. She knows the law thoroughly and she passionately attends to your matters.”
“She has consistently been able to convey complex patent and IP concepts and strategy in ways we were able to digest. We are very pleased with her service.”
“Sasha is fabulous. She is a wonderful, salt of the earth person who cares about the relationship she has with us. She truly has our best interests in mind.”
“Her abilities to respond almost 24/7 and to address the business issues versus just the legal protection is very impressive.”
“She is one of the hardest working people I know who also gets our overall business needs and works hard to make our business successful.”