Bernard Chao earned his J.D. from the School of Law at Duke University. Prior to joining the University of Denver, Professor Chao spent almost twenty years practicing law in Silicon Valley. He has worked as in-house counsel, at large national law firms, and co-founded a small patent boutique. As Vice President of Legal Strategy at Covad Communications (the first national DSL carrier), Professor Chao was responsible for a broad range of legal issues that arose as Covad grew from a small startup to a public company with thousands of employees nationwide. His responsibilities included working with state public utilities commissions to develop new rules and regulations for competitive local exchange carriers and managing antitrust, patent, and commercial litigation.

In the Silicon Valley offices of Wilson, Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Pennie & Edmonds, Professor Chao represented technology companies in high stakes patent litigations around the country. At Chao Hadidi Stark & Barker LLP, he provided strategic patent counseling to both established companies and startups. Professor Chao is currently serving as a court appointed Special Master in the largest group of patent cases in the United States, In Re Katz Interactive Call Processing Patent Litigation (07-ml-01816, C.D. CA). Professor Chao teaches intellectual property and patent law. His research focuses on patent law and technology issues in the law.

Featured Publications

• Moderating Mayo, 107 Northwestern University Law Review (colloquy essay) ___, (forthcoming).
• Reconciling Foreign and Domestic Infringement, UMKC Law Review (forthcoming 2012 Symposium Issue).
• The Case for Contribution in Patent Law, 80 University of Cincinnati Law Review 113 (2011) awarded a Samsung/Stanford Patent Prize.
• Not So Confidential: A Call for Restraint in Sealing Court Records, 2011 Patently-O Patent L.J. 6 (July 29, 2011).
• Breaking Aro’s Commandment: Recognizing That Inventions Have Heart, 20 Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal 1185 (2010).