Barbara N. Barath is a litigation counsel based in the San Francisco office, who helps lead the firm’s technology litigation practice and is a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property Litigation Group.
Ms. Barath is a seasoned intellectual property litigator and experienced trial lawyer. She has represented clients in a range of patent, trade secret, copyright, and trademark disputes involving various technologies, including semiconductors, computer-aided drafting (CAD) software, mobile device user interfaces, mobile device management, and other niche software. She has led the case strategy for numerous notable IP disputes, including for Fortune 500 and multinational technology clients. Ms. Barath is a member of the appellate team named by Law.com as a “Litigator of the Week Runner-Up” for its representation of Fortinet Inc.
Ms. Barath is also a leader in trade secrets cases. She is vice chair of the Trade Secrets and Interferences with Contracts Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law; has represented clients in multiple multi-million-dollar trade secrets cases, including helping secure a $764.6 million jury verdict and $34.2 million in attorneys’ fees for Motorola in a case involving a competitor’s use of confidential documents and copyright-protected source code relating to two-way radios; and regularly presents on trade secret issues, including guest lecturing at UCLA Law School regarding trade secret cases in Professor Eugene Volokh’s Business Torts class.
Ms. Barath is active in pro bono efforts and has taken to trial, or successfully settled, several cases involving unlawful search, use of excessive force, as well as NEPA and Wilderness Act claims. She also successfully tried a copyright infringement matter on behalf of a pro bono defendant after the Ninth Circuit remanded the case back to the district court for a jury trial. She also represented California public school children alleging that the State has failed to give them equal access to literacy as well as transgender inmates alleging that federal prisons failed to adequately protect them from sexual assault by fellow inmates as well as prison staff.
Prior to joining Debevoise, Ms. Barath was a partner of another international law firm where she practiced in the Intellectual Property Litigation Group, focusing on trade secret and patent cases. Earlier in her career, Ms. Barath served in the Major Crimes Division of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office before entering private practice as an associate in the Intellectual Property practice of another premier law firm. Ms. Barath received her J.D. from the University of Southern California in 2009, her M.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 2006 and her B.A. from Stanford University in 2004.