Technology
Paul, Weiss’s Technology Group, one of the most accomplished and diverse practices nationwide, offers unparalleled capabilities in the sector. Our preeminent litigation team helps numerous global technology companies successfully navigate serious litigation and regulatory threats, including leading many of the most consequential trials in the sector. Our transactional lawyers regularly guide technology companies and investors through the largest, most transformational transactions, while protecting and leveraging clients’ core technologies. Our team also features several lawyers recognized as leading specialists on the intersection of AI and the law.
Our matters cover all corners of the tech universe, including software, semiconductors, hardware, cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency/blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, internet of things, cybersecurity, mobile communications, social media, cleantech, robotics, autonomous driving, the sharing economy and other technologies.
Litigation and Regulatory: With expertise in antitrust, class action, complex commercial, copyright, employment, patent, securities and white collar matters, our litigators have prevailed in some of the most impactful, high-stakes technology disputes and guided industry leaders through the most sensitive enforcement matters in recent years. We are known first and foremost as trial lawyers, with the experience and confidence to take cases all the way—especially when the stakes are the highest or there is no precedent or playbook. We are also highly experienced in crisis management matters, advising many tech leaders as the industry faces intense regulatory scrutiny and high-stakes challenges by private plaintiffs.
Transactional: With clients that include marquee technology companies and the most active private equity investors in the industry, our firm has advised on some of the most transformational and complex, multi-jurisdictional deals involving cutting-edge technologies. Comprising members of our market-leading M&A and IP & Technology Transactions Practices, our team has helped hundreds of companies and investors appropriately value, protect and leverage a vast range of digital assets and cutting-edge innovations. In particular, we have extensive experience structuring, negotiating and executing groundbreaking transactions involving emerging technologies, including trailblazing deals in AI and machine learning, AR/VR, and cryptocurrency and blockchain.
“Paul, Weiss is best in class. They provide outstanding service and are always thinking strategically and creatively on behalf of their clients to achieve successful outcomes for even the most sophisticated matters.”
- Chambers USA
Recent
Experience
Recognition
Law360: “Technology Group of the Year” (2024, 2023, 2021)
- Law360: “Fintech Group of the Year” (2022)
- Recognized by the Legal 500 US as a top-ranked firm for Fintech and Cyber Law
- Jonathan Ashtor Named to Bloomberg Law's "They've Got Next: The 40 Under 40"
Recent Engagements
Litigation
- Amazon.com, Inc. in several matters, including in securing the complete dismissal, with prejudice, of a class action alleging that Amazon’s Buy Box algorithm is biased, causing consumers to overpay for products by favoring higher-priced offers from Amazon Retail and third-party sellers using Amazon’s fulfillment service, in violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act.
- IBM in:
- a multibillion dollar lawsuit against its semiconductor chip supplier, GlobalFoundries, asserting claims for fraud and breach of technology, development, manufacturing and supply agreements related to a long-term alliance IBM entered into with GlobalFoundries through which the parties committed to co-develop cutting-edge technology for complex semiconductor chips; and
- winning an injunction at trial, affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit, in a high-profile trade secrets case that prohibited a former senior executive from accepting a competing leadership position at a competing technology company.
- Qualcomm and NUVIA in securing a jury verdict in a closely watched breach of contract lawsuit brought by Arm, a UK-based semiconductor and software design company owned by SoftBank, alleging claims of trademark infringement and violations of NUVIA’s license agreements with Arm. Following a four-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, a jury found that that Qualcomm did not breach the terms of NUVIA’s chip architecture licensing agreement with Arm and that its chips were properly licensed. The case was worth tens of billions of dollars and had far-reaching consequences for innovation and competition.
- RingCentral in the settlement of a high-stakes unfair competition dispute with Zoom Video Comms. arising from a strategic partnership between the two companies that allowed RingCentral to resell Zoom’s video service as part of its unified communications as a service offerings.
- Ripple, its co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse in winning a significant victory in the SEC’s lawsuit alleging that the defendants had altogether conducted over $2.6 billion in unregistered securities transactions through sales of digital asset XRP, and further alleging that the two executives aided and abetted Ripple’s sales in violation of U.S. securities laws. Following a significant summary judgment victory in which the court held that the sale of XRP on public exchanges did not constitute the sale of unregistered securities, the SEC filed for a rare voluntary dismissal of the remaining aiding and abetting claims against the individual defendants, resulting in a complete victory for the individual defendants.
- SAP in a longstanding dispute brought by business analytics provider Teradata, seeking more than $1 billion in damages in an action involving high-stakes antitrust and trade secret claims concerning SAP’s flagship product HANA. The dispute also includes counterclaims by SAP alleging Teradata’s infringement of several SAP patents, as well as follow-on patent litigation.
- Snap, Inc., and several of its directors and executives in the defense of a securities class action and related shareholder derivative actions brought by investors alleging false and misleading statements about Snap’s preparation for the rollout by Apple of new privacy changes and their impact on prospective advertising revenue.
- Sony Interactive Entertainment in the successful settlement of a class action antitrust litigation accusing Sony of monopolizing the market for digital PlayStation games.
Transactional
- Aptiv in the separation of its Electrical Distribution Systems business to create two separate publicly traded companies; $4.3 billion acquisition of Wind River from TPG Capital; and $4 billion autonomous driving joint venture with Hyundai Motor Group.
- Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications, on a new multi-year partnership with OpenAI.
- General Atlantic in the $7.2 billion take-private transaction of its portfolio company Squarespace by Permira.
- IBM in its $6.4 billion acquisition of HashiCorp; $4.6 billion acquisition of Apptio; in its sale of The Weather Company to Francisco Partners; in its strategic partnership with Palo Alto Networks; and $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat.
- Nuance Communications in its $19.7 billion sale to Microsoft.
- Qualcomm in its $4.5 billion topping bid for Veoneer.
- ZT Systems in its $4.9 billion stock and cash sale to Advanced Micro Devices.
