carrie williamson

Carrie L. Williamson

Partner
Palo Alto (Silicon Valley)
About

Carrie Williamson is a trial lawyer with 17 years of experience managing and trying patent litigation matters for both large and small companies. She has been the second-chair attorney for three jury trials for patent infringement and was a trial team member for two other jury trials, a bench trial, and five hearings in the International Trade Commission. 

In addition to her trial experience, she regularly helps clients successfully resolve patent litigation cases before trial. In January, 2018, she led a team to invalidate five patents in the Northern District of California through a motion for judgment on the pleadings.

Carrie was the associate hiring partner for DLA Piper's Northern California offices from 2015 – 2020 and was selected to participate in DLA Piper's Women Emerging Leaders program in 2017 – 2018. She also serves on the Legal Advisory Committee for the Silicon Valley Urban Debate League and on the Advisory Board for the ChIPs Silicon Valley chapter. 

Areas of FocusIntellectual PropertyPatent LitigationTechnologyLitigation, Arbitration and Investigations
Bar admissionsCalifornia
CourtsSupreme Court of CaliforniaUnited States Court of Appeals for the Federal CircuitUnited States District Court for the Northern District of CaliforniaUnited States District Court for the Central District of CaliforniaUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin

EXPERIENCE

  • BrightEdge Technologies, Inc. v. Searchmetrics GmbH and Searchmetrics Inc., United States District Court, Northern District of California. Currently representing Searchmetrics in 5-patent litigation related to search engine optimization technology.  Won a motion for judgment on the pleadings invalidating all five patents because patents lack of patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101
  • Intellectual Ventures I LLC et al. v. Toshiba Corporation et al. – United States District Court, District of Delaware. Represented Toshiba in a 10-patent litigation accusing technology ranging from NAND flash memory, hard disk drives, and products using USB. Two patents were dismissed following successful IPR final decisions. Obtained summary judgment of invalidity as to one patent and jury verdict of invalidity or noninfringement as to three memory patents at trial
  • Certain Optical Disc Drives, Components Thereof, And Products Containing The Same (337-TA-897). Represented respondent in ITC investigation involving 6 patents regarding optical disc drive technology. Obtained two Initial Determinations from the ALJ finding complainant did not have standing, which were upheld by the Commission after review
  • CpuMate Inc. and Golden Sun News Techniques Co., Ltd. v. Toshiba Corporation, et al. – United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas and Central District of California. Represented Toshiba in patent case involving cooling technology in computers. Won motion to transfer case from Eastern District of Texas to Central District of California
  • TVI v. Toshiba Corporation – United States District Court, Northern District of California. Represented Toshiba in a four-patent case involving DVD technology
  • NetApp v. Sun Microsystems and Sun Microsystems v. NetApp – United States District Court, Northern District of California. Represented Sun in three District Court patent infringement actions between Sun and NetApp. The parties litigated 39 patents, most of which are directed to storage technology. Obtained favorable settlement
  • Yamaha v. TSST – United States District Court, Central District of California. Represented two TSST entities in 11-patent litigation involving optical disk drives
  • Certain Personal Computer and Digital Display Devices (Inv. No. 337-TA-606): Represented Hewlett-Packard in ITC against Acer, Inc. Technology involved computer bus architecture, LCD scalar chips and rewritable DVD drives. Obtained favorable settlement after ITC trial before issuance of Initial Determination
  • Hitachi Global Storage Technology (HGST) v. Samsung: Represented Samsung in EDTX against claims of patent infringement. Technology involved hard disk drive formats. Obtained favorable settlement
  • CollegeNET, Inc. v. XAP Corporation. Obtained jury verdict US$8.5 million in a patent infringement and Lanham Act action in the US District Court for the District of Oregon. Technology related to applying for college over the Internet
  • Zoran Corporation v. MediaTek, Inc. et al. – United States International Trade Commission. Represented complainants Zoran and Oak Technology in asserting three patents related to optical disk controller chips and DVD players. Obtained Exclusion Order and Cease and Desist Order against MediaTek and ten of its customers as to one patent. Case subsequently settled on terms extremely favorable to Zoran and Oak
  • MediaTek, Inc. v. Zoran Corporation – United States International Trade Commission. Defended respondents Zoran and Oak against allegations of infringing three patents relating to optical disk controller chips. Obtained Initial Determination of non-infringement and invalidity. Case subsequently settled on terms favorable to Zoran and Oak

Awards

Legal 500 United States

  • Recommended, Patents Litigation: Full Coverage, (2019, 2021, 2024)

Pro Bono

  • Led 2019 and 2020 ChIPs Silicon Valley ALI program to help educate female-identifying high school students to introduce them to different legal careers, areas of law and women leaders
  • Created a three-week summer program in 2014 for the Boys & Girls Club in East Palo Alto where high school students argued contract interpretation issues before Judge Koh in her courtroom in the Northern District of California
Education
  • J.D., University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, 2003

    Articles Editor, Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law

  • B.A., Bowling Green State University, 1998
    summa cum laude
    Phi Beta Kappa

Memberships And Affiliations

  • Silicon Valley Urban Debate League
    • Legal Advisory Committee
  • Advisory Board, ChIPs Silicon Valley chapter

My latest insights

News

Office Snapshot: DLA Piper Gets Tech Look In Silicon Valley

7 March 2024 .1 minute read

Past event

CLE Day

14 December 2023 .3 minute read

News

DLA Piper to relocate to Palo Alto’s Stanford Research Park

11 September 2022 .2 minute read

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Phone

+1 650 833 2044
(Work, Silicon Valley)