Priya Raman
Partner for IP and Technology. Former software engineer turned attorney. USPTO registered, deep-tech client base, and the rare counsel who can read your codebase before she reads your contract.
Priya Raman
Partner, IP & Technology
Biography
Priya spent the first four years of her career as a software engineer at a Bay Area infrastructure company, shipping production code on distributed systems before deciding that the more interesting problems were happening in the licensing meetings she kept being pulled into. She enrolled at Stanford Law in 2011 and graduated with the intent of practicing technology law without ever putting on a tie.
She joined Sterling & Hayes Legal as the firm's first IP and technology partner in 2018, and has since built a practice that spans the full lifecycle of a software business — from trademark clearance and the first round of customer MSAs, through patent portfolio strategy and open-source policy, all the way to acquisition diligence for the buyers acquiring her clients. She is a USPTO registered patent attorney and one of a small number of Austin lawyers who hold both that registration and an undergraduate degree in computer science.
Priya's clients are SaaS companies, AI startups, consumer hardware brands, and the in-house counsel teams at mid-market tech employers who need overflow support on commercial agreements. She is increasingly the firm's first call on data privacy and AI governance matters, including model-training data hygiene, customer-facing AI disclosures, and the rapidly shifting regulatory perimeter around generative AI products.
She co-leads Sterling & Hayes Legal's annual Founders' IP Bootcamp, mentors women engineers transitioning into law through a Stanford alumni program, and — as the result of an unfortunate bet with David Hayes — is now the firm's reluctant authority on Texas barbecue rankings.
Representative Matters
- Built and prosecuted a foundational trademark portfolio for an Austin consumer hardware startup spanning eight international jurisdictions ahead of a Series B round.
- Led IP diligence and software representations for the buyer in a $60M acquisition of a Texas vertical SaaS company, including open-source license audit and inbound contributor review.
- Drafted the AI governance framework and customer disclosures for an Austin generative-AI platform, including model-card documentation and training-data provenance protocols.
- Counseled a mid-market healthcare technology client through a HIPAA business associate agreement renegotiation across nineteen enterprise customers.
- Negotiated a global licensing arrangement between a Carnegie Mellon spinout and a multinational hardware OEM, structuring royalty triggers and field-of-use carveouts.
Speaking & Publications
- Keynote, "The Open-Source Audit Every Founder Will Eventually Wish They Did Earlier," SXSW Interactive, 2024.
- Author, "Training Data Is the New Source Code: A Drafting Guide for AI Companies," Texas Tech Law Review, 2024.
- Panelist, "Patent Strategy for Software Startups in a Post-Alice World," American Bar Association IP Section, 2023.
- Co-author, "Trademarks for Bootstrapped Brands," published guide distributed by the Austin Technology Incubator, 2022.
- Regular contributor, Sterling & Hayes Legal's "Founders' IP Bootcamp," held semi-annually in Austin.
Memberships & Honors
- State Bar of Texas — Computer & Technology Section and Intellectual Property Section
- American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)
- International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) — CIPP/US certified
- Texas Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Intellectual Property, 2020–2024
- Austin Business Journal "40 Under 40" honoree, 2022
- South Asian Bar Association of North America (SABA)
Shipping software, training a model, or filing a trademark?
Priya works with technology founders from first commit to liquidity event. Reach out for IP strategy, SaaS contracts, AI governance, or trademark counsel.