Lawyers

Widely recognized as one of the top technology deal lawyers in the world, Nader A. Mousavi is a partner and co-head of the Firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology Group and a member of the Firm's Cybersecurity Group.

Mr. Mousavi has been described by his clients as “‘an amazing lawyer and trusted legal and business partner…[with] a unique ability to think outside the box and meet company goals. There’s nobody better when you take into account substantive knowledge, composed demeanour and negotiation ability.’” (IAM Patent 1000). Clients praise his “‘legal erudition, superlative drafting and bargaining aptitude’” and note that “‘he is a uniquely talented lawyer. You can put him on pretty much anything…’” (IAM Patent 1000).  He has been recognized by leading industry publications such as The American Lawyer, Chambers USA, Daily Journal, Law360 and the National Law Journal, including as a Law360 2018 MVP in technology and as one of the “The World’s Leading IP Strategists” and as a “Global Leader” by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM).

For over 20 years, Mr. Mousavi has focused his practice on technology-intensive mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and collaborations, as well as the licensing of rights in intellectual property (such as patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets), data, content, pharmaceuticals, software and other technology. His clients range from Fortune 50 companies to leading edge innovators in 5G, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, crypto currencies, data analytics, drones, genetics, robotics and streaming. He regularly counsels clients on IP and technology strategy, including in the context of CFIUS, cybersecurity, disputes, patent pools, privacy, restructurings, standards and settlements.

A distinguished thought-leader in the field, Mr. Mousavi is a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School (from 2015 to present), where he teaches a course on the Business and Law of Patent and Technology Licensing. Mr. Mousavi served as the law school’s National Reunion Chair (2015 – 2019), and was the recipient of the Stanford University Associates Governors’ Award for exemplary and long-standing volunteer service to Stanford University (2019).

Mr. Mousavi’s perspective is informed by his diverse experience. Earlier in his career, he served as the general counsel of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company through its acquisition, as interim counsel to Cisco’s IP telephony business, and as a summer honors law clerk in the antitrust division of the United States Department of Justice.

SELECTED REPRESENTATIONS

IP and Technology Transactions

• ASML, the world’s leading maker of semiconductor lithography equipment, in connection with its worldwide patent cross-license with Nikon, settling pending 88 patent cases
• AT&T and DirecTV in agreements with Google to create an Android-based set-top box for live streaming AT&T TV and deploy Google Search/Assistant on AT&T mobile devices 
• Broadcom in its agreements to supply Apple Inc. with an estimated $15 billion of wireless components for use in Apple products
• The separation from Google of Google’s Alphabet companies, including Verily (life sciences) and Waymo (autonomous driving) and Wing (drone delivery)
• Intel in connection with numerous transactional and strategy matters, including its sale to Apple Inc. of its 5G modem business and associated cellular patents; its worldwide patent cross-licenses with Advanced Micro Devices and nVidia; its patent agreement with GlobalFoundries; and its NAND Flash memory joint venture with Micron Technology
• McCartney Productions in an agreement with Hewlett Packard to create a private cloud for the music library of former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney
• OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT and Dall-E, in its multi-billion dollar partnership with Microsoft, including in the development of supercomputing systems to accelerate OpenAI’s groundbreaking independent AI research, and enabling the deployment of OpenAI’s models in Microsoft’s consumer and enterprise products
• Silver Lake Partners and Skype in the settlement of IP disputes with, and acquisition of peer-to-peer network technology from, Skype’s founders
• Sisvel in its license to RPX of Wi-Fi essential patents of Orange, Fraunhofer, KPN, Columbia University, and Mitsubishi Electric, establishing a “ground breaking” framework for the efficient licensing of standard essential patents between a patent pool and defensive aggregator
• Verily Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., in its joint venture with Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to develop and commercialize a portfolio of ophthalmology diagnostics and therapies

Technology, Media and Telecom

• Alcatel-Lucent in its $16.6 billion acquisition by Nokia
• AMC Networks in its partnership with fuboTV
• AT&T in its $108.7 billion acquisition of Time Warner
• FilmYard Holdings, parent company of MIRAMAX, in connection with beIN MEDIA GROUP’s acquisition of MIRAMAX
• Major League Baseball and its wholly-owned subsidiary MLB Advanced Media ("MLBAM") in connection with MLBAM’s formation of BAMTech, MLB’s digital streaming technology business, and Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of a joint venture interest in BAMTech
• Recruit Holdings in its $1.2 billion acquisition of Glassdoor
• Ruckus Wireless in its $1.5 billion acquisition by Brocade
• Silver Lake Partners and Skype in connection with the $8.5 billion sale of Skype to Microsoft
• Zynga in its $527 million acquisition of NaturalMotion

Healthcare and Life Sciences

• Amgen in its $28.3 billion pending acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics; its $13.4 billion acquisition from Celgene of worldwide rights to Otezla®; its $10.5 billion acquisition of Onyx Pharmaceuticals; and its $1.16 billion acquisition of Micromet
• Bayer in its $66 billion takeover of Monsanto
• Biohaven Pharmaceuticals in its sale of tiered, sales-based participation rights on future global net sales of products containing rimegepant (BHV-3000) or BHV-3500 and certain derivative compounds thereof to Royalty Pharma for $100 million
• Idenix Pharmaceuticals in its $3.85 billion acquisition by Merck
• Kite Pharma in its $11.9 billion acquisition by Gilead Sciences
• Pharmasset in its $11 billion acquisition by Gilead Sciences
• Royal Philips in its acquisition of the healthcare information systems business of Carestream, and its $2.2 billion acquisition of The Spectranetics Corporation
• Stemcentrx in its $5.8 billion acquisition by AbbVie
• Sumitovant Biopharma and Sumitomo Pharma in their $2.9 billion acquisition of Myovant Sciences
• ​Sumitovant Biopharma Ltd. in the collaboration of its subsidiary Myovant Sciences with Pfizer Inc. to develop and commercialize Sumitovant’s ORGOVYX^TM (relugolix) 
• Teva Pharmaceutical in its $40.5 billion acquisition of Allergan Generics

Financial Technology (FinTech)

• AIG in its acquisition of Hamilton Insurance and collaboration with Two Sigma Insurance Quantified (TSIQ) to apply data analytics to transform commercial underwriting  
• Bitcoin data licensing transactions for Bitcoin exchanges such as Gemini and Bitmex
• CLS Bank in its outsourcing to IBM of IT infrastructure used in the high-volume settlement of foreign exchange central to the global financial system
• First Republic Bank in its engagement of FIS to provide its core banking technology
• Fiserv in its $22 billion acquisition of First Data and $465 million acquisition of CashEdge
• ING Groep in its $9 billion sale of its ING Direct USA online banking unit to Capital One Financial and its $3.1 billion sale of ING Bank of Canada (ING Direct Canada) to The Bank of Nova Scotia
• J.P. Morgan in its joint venture with Temasek and DBS Bank to develop Partior, a blockchain-based global clearing and settlement network, and its joint venture with Volkswagen relating to Volkswagen’s payments business
• VeriFone in its acquisition of Hypercom and its $3.4 billion acquisition by Francisco Partners
• Strategic advice regarding resolution planning for technology systems and intellectual property for various leading financial institutions

 Consumer, Sports and Industrial

• Colgin Cellars, a cult Napa wine producer, in its sale of a majority interest to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton
• Draft Kings, a leading online sports betting company, in its $3.3 billion merger with SBTech and Diamond Eagle
• Joe Tsai, executive vice chairman and co-founder of Alibaba Group, in his acquisition of the Brooklyn Nets and the Barclays Center
• Kraft Foods Group in its $55 billion merger with H.J. Heinz Company
• Navistar International in its strategic supply and joint development alliance with TRATON (formerly Volkswagen Truck & Bus)