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Our Story

A firm built on the conviction that intellectual property should be treated the way a venture capitalist treats a portfolio company: with strategy, foresight, and a commitment to long-term value.

Garg Law Firm, PLLC

Why This Firm Exists

Garg Law Firm was born from a realization: the most powerful thing an innovator can do is not just build something great, but build walls around it. When founder Rakesh Garg was co-founding his third technology startup in the late 1990s, venture capital wasn’t interested in the product features or the sales projections. What attracted nearly $13 million in investment and ultimately a successful acquisition was how the company was protecting its development trajectory and walling off the competitive space around it. That clarity about the role of intellectual property permanently reshaped how Rakesh saw the practice of law, and why he left a successful startup to pursue it.

Deciding to leave his startup and enter law school, he passed the patent bar in his first year. His work for a Fortune 20 client, who has been among the world’s largest patent portfolio holders for decades, was distinctive enough that he successfully represented them continually for 20+ years, starting before the firm was born and continuing through the firm. The guiding principle at the firm is to work not on a case, but on a vision. Every application we draft, every office action we respond to, every appeal we take is framed around protecting a commercial space and creating leverage, not merely defending a disclosed idea.

That firm is now in its 18th year of growth. It has been recognized by American Lawyer and Corporate Counsel as a “go-to law firm for intellectual property for top 500 clients,” and its work has been showcased publicly by Fortune® 25 clients in their own press conferences. The founder still reviews every work product with the same question a venture capitalist would ask: Is this protecting a growth trajectory?

We are not a large firm; we are a focused one. We offer in-house IP counsel a genuine support system for their entire function, not just a vendor for discrete tasks. We serve as second chair on anything IP: patent prosecution, portfolio strategy, litigation support, licensing, competitive landscape analysis, and IP-aligned product roadmapping. We are keenly aware that in-house counsel carry large, often nebulously defined responsibilities, and our job is to make that responsibility lighter and the outcomes stronger.

“For each case assigned to us, I still think I am taking it to a VC funding meeting. I look at every work product from the point of view of a venture capitalist: is this protecting a growth trajectory? I think this is what makes our firm different.”

Rakesh Garg, Founder

Garg Law Firm office corridor, Houston, Texas

© Garg Law Firm, PLLC, 2021

Rakesh Garg, Founder & Principal Attorney, Garg Law Firm, PLLC

Rakesh Garg
Founder & Principal Attorney

Principal & Founder

Rakesh Garg

Registered Patent Attorney | USPTO • J.D., Cum Laude, SMU Dedman School of Law • M.S. Computer Science, UT Dallas • B.E. Electrical Engineering

Registered Patent Attorney USPTO Texas Bar J.D., Cum Laude M.S. Computer Science B.E. Electrical Engineering

Court Admissions

Supreme Court of the United States U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit U.S. District Court, E.D. Tex.

Rakesh Garg is the founder and principal attorney of Garg Law Firm, PLLC. His career spans almost four decades at the intersection of software engineering, entrepreneurship, and intellectual property law, a background that gives him a distinctive vantage point few IP practitioners share. As a serial entrepreneur, having founded and been involved with several startups before entering law, Rakesh co-founded GlobeRanger Corporation, a supply-chain and RFID technology company that raised over $13 million in venture capital and was ultimately acquired by Fujitsu.

He also held senior technical and consulting roles at Netscape Communications, where he architected global supply chain and e-commerce infrastructure for some of the world’s largest automotive and telecommunications companies, and at American Airlines/SABRE, where he architected reservation technology for several European railroads and pipeline capacity reservation technology for oil and gas companies.

Rakesh passed the USPTO patent bar in his first year at SMU’s Dedman School of Law, graduating Cum Laude in 2008. He practiced at a patent boutique firm as well as Big Law before founding Garg Law Firm, PLLC. Besides being the principal attorney and shareholder of the firm, he is actively engaged in the practice and continues to personally handle cases. He has drafted thousands of patent applications, Office Action responses, appeal briefs, and a variety of other filings in a large and illustrious body of his patent preparation and prosecution work.

His technical expertise spans software architecture, AI and machine learning, semiconductor design and fabrication, quantum computing and superconducting technology, telecommunications, fintech, medical devices, and computer hardware. He has been recognized by American Lawyer and Corporate Counsel, and his work has been showcased publicly by Fortune® 25 clients.

“Meeting really smart people and discussing innovations that will shape the world ten years out is what gets us to our computers each morning. This is our morning coffee, this is the perfect brain food, this is the best way to feel alive.”

What Guides Us

Our Commitments

01

The VC Mindset

Every work product is evaluated through the lens of a venture capitalist: does this protect a commercial growth trajectory, or does it merely contest a disclosed idea?

02

Your Second Chair

We are a support system for your entire IP function: prosecution, portfolio strategy, litigation support, licensing, competitive landscape, and beyond. Patent work is one piece of a larger picture.

03

Genuine Passion

We add only those people to the team who are genuinely excited by this work. Our practitioners are not just comfortable with tech; they are comfortable enough to be able to push the invention boundaries in technology.

Let’s Work Together

We welcome inquiries from inventors, companies, and in-house IP counsel seeking a committed, strategic IP partner.

Get in Touch