Deepa Acharya’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation. Deepa represents clients in all aspects of offensive and defensive litigation matters. Her practice focuses on high-stakes, high-technology patent and trade secrets litigation. She has litigated numerous cases through trial and appeal in federal courts, the International Trade Commission, and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in a variety of disputes relating to patents, trade secrets, contracts, licensing, and other complex commercial issues.
Deepa has cross examined witnesses at trial, argued in federal courts around the country, and deposed technical experts as well as apex corporate executives. She has experience litigating a wide range of technologies, including digital camera technology, Internet communications, software, digital video recording/decoding, electrical vehicle technologies, semiconductors, telecommunications, artificial intelligence, streaming, digital rights management, content delivery systems, payment systems, network security, financial/banking business methods, integrated circuits, and various consumer electronics. Recently, Deepa has played a leading role in multiple matters involving the licensing and enforcement of standard essential patents relating to wireless technology. She has a deep understanding of wireless standards, such as 5G, LTE, WCDMA, CDMA, GSM, Wi-Fi, and other wireless technologies.
Deepa’s litigation and trial successes have been widely covered in both industry and legal press. She was named a Washington D.C. Super Lawyers “Rising Star” in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 and a Top Attorney Under 40 for Intellectual Property by Law360 in 2020.
Deepa holds a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a double major in Business Administration and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University. She received her J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, where she was on the Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and California and before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- AOL
- Avaya
- Barnes & Noble
- California Institute of Technology
- Charter Communications
- DoCoMo
- MediaTek
- Motorola
- Qualcomm
- Ricoh
- Samsung
- Time Warner Cable
- Verizon
- Represented Charter Communications in a patent infringement case in which the patent holder alleged that Charter Communications infringed three patents directed to video streaming from a remote device. Charter Communications obtained a dismissal with prejudice as to one asserted patent and then an early grant of summary judgment of non-infringement as to the other two asserted patents.
- Successfully represented California Institute of Technology in a patent infringement lawsuit that it filed against Apple and Broadcom in the Central District of California that resulted in a $1.1 billion jury verdict. The patented technology involved 802.11 IEEE wireless technology.
- Represented Samsung in a massive cross-licensing dispute against Huawei. This action was pending in the Northern District of California involving twenty-two 3G/UMTS and 4G/LTE SEPs, a wide range of competing FRAND defenses and claims, and an antitrust counterclaim asserted by Samsung based on attempted monopolization.
- Successfully defended SemaConnect, Inc. in a patent infringement lawsuit brought by ChargePoint, Inc. SemaConnect won a contract to install electric vehicle charging stations as part of the $15 billion settlement of Volkswagen’s vehicle emissions scandal. ChargePoint sought a TRO to prevent SemaConnect from installing those electric vehicle charging stations. Defeated ChargePoint’s TRO motion within a week of being hired, filed a motion to dismiss ChargePoint’s Complaint within a month, and approximately two months later the Court issued a 70-page decision invalidating all of ChargePoint’s asserted claims. The Court entered judgment in SemaConnect’s favor. Successfully argued the judgement be affirmed at the Federal Circuit.
- Obtained a summary judgment of invalidity in favor of our client Time Warner Cable against Broadband iTV, Inc. in a patent infringement dispute pending in the District of Hawaii. Successfully argued the judgement be affirmed at the Federal Circuit.
- Successfully represented Samsung against Apple in an ITC Investigation involving a Samsung patent which had been declared as potentially essential to the ETSI UMTS (3G) standard. The ITC found that Apple violated Section 337 through the importation and/or sale of UMTS-compliant products that infringe that patent. After a full trial and extensive rounds of briefing on technical and public interest issues, the Commission issued an exclusion and cease and desist order against Apple, that will prevent the importation of the iPhone 3G, 3GS (UMTS versions), 4 (UMTS versions), iPad 3G, and iPad 2 3G (UMTS versions) into the United States after a 60-day Presidential Review Period. In finding a violation, the ITC rejected all of Apple’s defenses including its assertion that Samsung had allegedly violated certain FRAND obligations with respect to its assertion and licensing of its declared essential patents. Although Apple has been named a respondent in the ITC a number of times, this is the first ITC exclusion order to be issued against Apple, and the first exclusion order obtained by Samsung at the ITC.
- Obtained a successful settlement on behalf of Motorola against TiVo in Eastern District of Texas dispute.
- On behalf of a global telecommunications company successfully resolved IP dispute with Apple involving district court litigations in Delaware and Wisconsin, three ITC investigations, and foreign court proceedings.
- Successfully defended Defendants AOL, eBay, and MySpace in patent infringement lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Texas involving Linux operating system.
- Obtained a successful settlement on behalf of Samsung in a patent infringement dispute with Cellular Communications Equipment LLC filed in the Eastern District of Texas involving LTE technology.
- Obtained a complete dismissal of case in favor for MediaTek in Inv. No. 337-TA-897 involving optical disk drive technology.
- University of Texas at Austin
(J.D., Honors, 2009) - Carnegie Mellon University
(B.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering and Economics, 2004)- Dean’s List, 2003-2004
- The District of Columbia Bar
- The State Bar of California
- United States District Courts
- Western District of Texas
- Eastern District of Texas
- Central District of California
- Northern District of California
- Southern District of California
- United States Courts of Appeals
- Federal Circuit
- Registered to Practice Before the United States Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Supreme Court
- Recognized by Lawdragon 500 as a Leading Litigator in IP Litigation (2023, 2024, 2025)
- Law360 Top Attorney Under 40 – Intellectual Property (2020)
- Named a Washington D.C. Super Lawyers “Rising Star” (2014-2018)
- Patent Infringement Issues Raised by Self-Replicating Inventions, New Matter, Vol. 33, Number 4, 2008.