Bernard Chao

Bernard Chao is a professor of law, co-director of the law school’s Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program and chair of the law school’s Hughes Committee, which supports faculty conducting empirical research. Professor Chao has written about both patent and data privacy issues important to the technology sector. His patent writings have been recognized with a Samsung-Stanford Patent Prize and included in West/Thomson’s annual Intellectual Property Law and Patent Law Reviews. As an outgrowth of this research, Professor Chao has authored several amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court working with different groups including the Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic and Electronic Frontier Foundation. Professor Chao also conducts experiments on legal decision-making.  This research cuts across several subject areas including remedies, the 4th Amendment, evidentiary rules, and jury instructions. Professor Chao’s papers have appeared in a number of leading publications including the California Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review and American Business Law Journal. 

Prior to joining the University of Denver, Professor Chao practiced law in Silicon Valley for almost twenty years in variety of different roles. At Wilson, Sonsini and Pennie & Edmonds, Professor Chao litigated high stakes patent cases. At Covad Communications, he served as Vice President of Legal Strategy as the company grew from a small broadband startup to a public company. Later Professor Chao co-founded his own boutique firm, Chao Hadidi Stark & Barker LLP.  Professor Chao has also had the privilege of advising federal judges as a court appointed Special Master, most notably, in the largest patent multidistrict litigation in U.S. history, In Re Katz Interactive Call Processing Patent Litigation.

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• JD, Duke University School of Law
• BS, Electrical Engineering Purdue University

• Registered with the Patent and Trademark Office
• Active Member of California Bar