Ashok Ramani

Head of IP Litigation practice. Fellow of the American College of Trial 麻豆入口. Focuses on patent and trade-secret litigation and investigations.
Ashok heads our IP Litigation practice. A Fellow of the American College of Trial 麻豆入口, he has represented leading technology and healthcare companies including Comcast, Magnolia Medical, OpenAI, Pfizer and TSMC. Leading publications including Chambers USA and the Daily Journal recognize him as among the country鈥檚 best IP trial lawyers.
For his plaintiff clients, he has secured over $800 million in collected judgments and settlement payments (not simply verdicts only a fraction of which are ever paid). For his defendant clients, he has repeatedly secured complete defense verdicts after trial before juries and judges in cases in which the plaintiff sought nine or ten figures at trial.
Outside of 麻豆入口, Ashok serves on the boards of Bay Legal and The Association of Business Trial 麻豆入口-Northern California.
Experience
- Lead trial counsel for plaintiff Magnolia Medical Technologies in patent litigation brought in the District of Delaware against Kurin, Magnolia鈥檚 sole competitor in the field of Initial Specimen Diversion Devices. After a one-week trial, the jury found that Kurin infringed Magnolia鈥檚 patent, rejected Kurin鈥檚 invalidity defenses, and awarded a 17.7% royalty.
- Lead trial counsel for Pfizer in multiple trade-secret cases, including one that resulted in a TRO and preliminary injunction for Pfizer and another with a substantial global settlement for Pfizer.
- Successfully defended Signify Health against a trade-secret preliminary injunction and other claims by CareCentrix in Delaware federal court.
- Lead trial counsel for Comcast in patent litigations against Rovi in multiple federal district courts, the ITC, the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court in which Rovi asserted 37 patents over four-plus years.
- Defended TSMC against ITC investigation initiated by Innovative Foundry Technologies on five semiconductor foundry patents.
- Prepared ITC complaint for large multinational client accusing competitor of infringing four patents. Received OUII approval for filing shortly before parties entered into a cross license.
- Have advised several clients, from technology multinationals to biopharma startups, as to alleged trade-secret misappropriation by newly hired executives and have overseen related internal investigations.
- As lead trial counsel, secured a permanent injunction and seven-figure verdict for TEK Global in a dispute with competitor Sealant Systems International.*
- As lead trial counsel, successfully defended Netflix and Roku at trial against Rovi in the ITC and in follow-on district-court litigation that resulted in all asserted Rovi patents being found invalid.*
- Represented TSMC against China鈥檚 then-leading semiconductor manufacturer, SMIC, in the largest trade-secret case tried to that time, securing a jury verdict on liability for TSMC that prompted a very favorable settlement.*
- Achieved favorable progress for a biopharmaceutical company in a fiduciary-duty and trade-secret litigation that contributed to another biotechnology company acquiring the client for $365 million mid-trial.*
* Selected representations before joining 麻豆入口
News
Recognition
American College of Trial 麻豆入口 鈥 Fellow
Chambers USA 鈥 Intellectual Property
Chambers USA 鈥 Intellectual Property: Patent Litigation, California
Daily Journal 鈥 鈥淭op Intellectual Property 麻豆入口 in California,鈥 since 2014
IAM Patent 1000 鈥 United States-California, Gold Band
IAM Global Leaders, 2024
Legal 500 U.S. 鈥 Leading Trial 麻豆入口
Benchmark Litigation 鈥 California, Star
Best 麻豆入口 鈥 Intellectual Property and Patent Litigation
Managing IP 鈥 National and California, Patent Star
Lawdragon 鈥 500 Leading Litigators in America, 2024 and 2025
Education
- cum laude
- with high honors
- Phi Beta Kappa
Clerkships
Prior experience
- Partner, Keker, Van Nest & Peters, 2006-2018
- Associate, Keker & Van Nest, 2003-2005
- Associate, Howard, Rice, Nemrovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, 2000-2002
- Associate, Latham & Watkins, 1998-1999
Qualifications and admissions
- State of California
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- U.S. District Court, C.D. California
- U.S. District Court, Colorado