Sarah Hartman is a Partner in the Firm’s Litigation Group and a member of the Global Hospitality Group®. Sarah is an experienced litigator who advises and represents clients through all aspects of litigation, from inception through trial and appeal. She advises and represents clients in the hospitality industry, including the termination of hotel management agreements and franchise agreements. Sarah also advises and represents clients on women’s health technology issues, intellectual property matters, and complex commercial disputes, including breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, breach of contract, unfair competition, products liability, employment litigation, class action defense, false advertising and other complex financial disputes.
Sarah also has extensive experience representing clients in patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret disputes in federal district courts and appellate courts in the United States, as well as in Section 337 investigations in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), and in appeals from decisions of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Sarah has litigated patent cases involving a broad range of technologies, including computer networking, LED panels and LED lights, automotive audio technology, mobile systems and applications, map-based communication technology and internet services and systems.
In addition, Sarah is dedicated to improving the lives of women through representing clients in the women's health technology market, FemTech, recently publishing on the topic in The Patent Lawyer.
Sarah was recognized as the Honoree - Rising Star of the Los Angeles Times B2B Publishing Orange County Inspirational Women Forum and Leadership Awards 2024, named as One of the Most Influential Women in IP by World IP Review in 2024, and nominated for the 2024 Los Angeles Business Journal's 2024 Women’s Leadership Awards. She has also been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America as “One to Watch" in Intellectual Property Litigation, by Super Lawyers as a Southern California Rising Star in commercial litigation and intellectual property litigation, and in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 editions of the IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Professionals. Sarah graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California, and received her J.D. Order of the Coif from Vanderbilt University Law School, where she served as a managing editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review.
- Representation of owner of a large portfolio of computer networking patents in multiple lawsuits in the Western District of Texas.
- Representation of founder and CEO of nonprofit animal rights organization in her claim of trademark infringement against a well-funded competitor.
- Representation of a company that develops and sells automotive interface products in its claim of infringement of patents concerning wireless connectivity for audio and multimedia integration systems against the world’s largest automotive manufacturers and suppliers.
- Representation of domestic manufacturer and inventor of technologies relating to LED display panels and LED lights in a patent infringement campaign in the ITC and Eastern District of Texas against mostly foreign competitors.
- Representation of a technology services company and its President in an action against the company’s former Vice President of Operations for misappropriation of trade secrets, conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract.
- Representation of a software company in its claim of infringement of patents concerning software-enabled functionality of location services against some of the world’s largest consumer technology and electronics companies.
- Representation of one of the nation’s largest television and radio audience measurement companies in a multimillion-dollar litigation against a famous radio personality and his company, involving claims of fraud, conspiracy, unfair business practices, and tortious interference, and counterclaims of conspiracy, tortious interference, and unfair business practices.
- Representation of several major motion picture studios in the successful defense of putative national consumer class action litigations. The cases were won on motions to dismiss.
- Representation of major country music star and televised shopping network in the successful defense of a litigation asserting Lanham Act claims (trademark infringement and dilution) and unfair competition. The case was won on a motion to dismiss. The case was covered by Law360.
- Representation of a multinational media conglomerate in an arbitration involving a film financing dispute with a New York hedge fund, which resulted in a favorable settlement for the client.
- Representation of the BVI Liquidator of the Fairfield Funds (the largest feeder funds into the Madoff Ponzi scheme) in the Funds’ Chapter 15 case in Bankruptcy Court in New York, including the prosecution of over 300 clawback actions commenced by the foreign liquidator and the Funds against certain of the Funds’ redeemers. The clawback actions seek the return to the Funds of over $6 billion in overpaid redemptions.
- Representation of a global corporate apparel manufacturer in defense of a mass tort / products liability litigation, resulting in favorable settlements for the client.