Priya B. Viswanath

Priya’s practice at Cooley focuses on intellectual property disputes, technology litigation and strategic counseling. Priya’s matters include patent and trade secret litigation, copyright litigation, unfair competition, antitrust issues, and counseling on technology issues in mergers and pre-litigation matters. Priya litigates before US district courts, the US Patent and Trademark Office and the International Trade Commission. She also frequently assists clients with developing the merits of arguments in IP litigations in foreign jurisdictions, including China, Germany, Brazil and India.

Priya regularly leads the development of the technical merits of cases during and prior to litigation. This work has led to favorable settlements and licensing terms. In one case, Priya’s presentation of the merits led a plaintiff to drop its complaint at the very outset of litigation. She also regularly manages and mentors teams of attorneys to efficiently complete litigation tasks on large and small litigation matters. 

Priya has broad educational, professional and litigation experience in electrical and computer science technologies. She has litigated cases involving numerous technologies – including audio and video coding; streaming protocols, circuits and devices; communication circuits, including cellular, WiFi, personal computer memory card international association (PCMCIA) and high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI); liquid crystal display structures and control; memory controllers; encryption; and processors and interrupt handling.

Before joining Cooley, Priya served as trial counsel at the US Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition in Washington, DC. She had lead roles in investigating and litigating against technology companies regarding anticompetitive practices and mergers. Priya’s work there resulted in several high-profile and successful settlements and wins for the FTC. She also gained significant trial experience while serving as a special assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where she served as first chair on several bench trials.

Priya served as a law clerk to Judge Sharon Prost of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and as a judicial extern to then-Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Priya attended the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, where she served as a senior articles editor for the Hastings Law Journal and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

Before attending law school, Priya studied electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, under a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, where she researched communication systems for automated vehicles. She also worked as a senior engineer in Qualcomm’s code division multiple access (CDMA) hardware infrastructure division and at WaveMarket as its principal wireless architect.