Karthika’s practice focuses on aligning intellectual property strategy with business priorities to drive value and manage risk across the innovation lifecycle. She works with global companies, research institutions, and high-growth businesses at the intersection of science, technology, and dealmaking—connecting technical insight with real-world execution. As Office Managing Partner of the firm’s Houston office, she brings an enterprise perspective to the development, protection, and monetization of IP assets, partnering closely with in-house counsel and business leaders to navigate complex challenges across innovation and commercialization. Karthika brings together and leads multidisciplinary teams across the firm to address complex, often multi-jurisdictional matters in a coordinated and efficient manner, with careful attention to clients’ time and resources.
Her work reflects a lifecycle view shaped by a career that began in the lab and extends through technology transfer, commercialization, and successful acquisitions. This experience gives her a practical understanding of how early IP decisions can shape long-term business outcomes, strategic options, and enterprise value.
Karthika’s work spans patent prosecution, IP portfolio strategy, and complex commercial transactions. She advises on IP diligence and freedom-to-operate, and is particularly valued for developing thoughtful, and as required creative, approaches to challenging IP issues. She structures and negotiates strategic collaborations, licensing arrangements, joint ventures, and supply and technology agreements, tailoring each to the client’s commercial objectives and operating environment. She has developed commercialization strategies for a variety of technologies and participated in the structuring and financing of several startup companies for pharmaceutical, medical device, and health tech products.
She is a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) and a Past-President and Past-Chair of Licensing Executives Society (LES) USA & Canada and has written extensively on IP licensing issues. She has been recognized in the IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners, in the 2025 edition of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, and by U.S. News in the Best Lawyers in America® 2026 edition for Patent Law, Technology Law, and Trade Secrets Law.
Representative Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
- Advised energy and materials companies on intellectual property and technology transactions, including structuring licensing and collaboration frameworks, conducting IP diligence for strategic initiatives, and developing patent and trademark protection strategies in competitive markets.
- Advised a global industrial client on management of its intellectual property portfolio relating to process technologies and catalyst systems, including patent prosecution strategy, patent landscape analysis, freedom-to-operate assessments, and alignment of IP strategy with commercialization objectives.
- Handled U.S. patent prosecution for a major North American energy company’s battery and electrochemical technologies.
- Developed and advised on global trade secret management programs for multinational companies, including drafting policies and governance frameworks, conducting multi-jurisdictional employee trainings, providing trade secret portfolio valuation, and implementing enterprise-wide inventory and protection strategies aligned with operational and contractual practices.
- Advised on licensing and settlement frameworks for energy and life sciences companies, including evaluation of patent coverage, improvement and grant-back provisions, field-of-use and exclusivity restrictions, royalty structures, diligence and milestone obligations, indemnification, audit and reporting rights, and covenant-not-to-sue provisions in connection with new product development.
- Handled patent and trademark portfolios relating to biological compositions and processes, including nucleic acids, antibodies, cell lines, and pharmaceutical formulations, for medical research and development institutions.
- Handled patent and trademark portfolios relating to drilling compositions, petroleum products and processes, and software used in refinery operations for oil and gas clients.
- Structured and negotiated a broad range of commercial and technology agreements to support product development and commercialization, including licensing agreements, joint ventures, corporate partnering arrangements, sales and distribution agreements, and master services agreements for publicly traded and privately held companies.
- Conducted IP due diligence in connection with financing and acquisition transactions across multiple sectors, including energy, consumer electronics, alternative fuels, and animal health.
- Advised on the structuring and negotiation of master services agreements for business process and information technology outsourcing arrangements.
- Advised clients on funding arrangements with U.S. federal agencies, including compliance with legal and regulatory requirements applicable to entities receiving government grants and contracts.
Thought Leadership
Publications
- Co-Author, "Patents in Co-Branding and Collaborative Product Development," Licensing International, April 29, 2026
- Co-Author (with Alexandre de Gramont, Jeff Whittle, Adrian Jones and Jose Luis Vittor), "Force Majeure in the Iran War: The Hidden Traps We Are Not Talking About (Yet)," WBD Client Alert, April 13, 2026
- Co-Author, (with Michael Samardzija and Jeff Whittle), "Inventorship Errors Can Undermine Patent Value: Practical Steps to Reduce Risk," WBD Client Alert, April 3, 2026
- Co-Author (with Jeff Whittle), "Texas Business Court Signals Broad IP Jurisdiction, Opening Door to Patent‑Adjacent Disputes," WBD Client Alert, March 23, 2026
- Co-Author, "Building A Sustainable Future: Understanding Permissible Repair VS Impermissible Reconstruction in Support of a Circular Economy," Les Nouvelles, September 2025
Presentations
- Confidentiality Agreements in the Era of Artificial Intelligence," Licensing Executives Society International (LESI) Annual Meeting, April 2026
- Patents, pivot points, and panic attacks: Practical IP issues for academic entrepreneurs, American Chemical Society Spring Meeting, March 22, 2026
- Building a Sustainable Future: Understanding Permissible Repair vs. Impermissible Reconstruction in Support of a Circular Economy, Houston Intellectual Property Law Association CLE Presentation, January 29, 2026
- Session 1: IP & Licensing and Session 2: Licensing as a Business Strategy, LES Academy at Licensing Executives Society Annual Meeting, October 20, 2025
- Expand your firm's horizons on how to navigate global risks, The Law Society, September 10, 2025
- Leveraging IP for Circular Supply Chain Model, The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (Kuwait Branch), Aug 13, 2025
- Just for Startups: Licensing from a University & University IP Policy Basics, From Idea to Startup, hosted by NUTech Ventures, July 30, 2025.
- The Future for IP Professionals, LESI Young Members Congress Asia Pacific Conference, April 25, 2025
- Strengthening Your License – The Sequel to ‘Mechanics of a License, Course offered by Licensing Executives Society, online on February 4, 2025 and in person, October 2024
- IP Licensing Basics, Course offered by Licensing Executives Society, online on December 10, 2024
- Intellectual Property Strategy for Startups, University of Houston / Tech Bridge community, July 5, 2024
- Ethics of Negotiation, Washington DC Chapter meeting of the Licensing Executives Society, June 21, 2023
- Section 101 & 112 Issues in Patent Protection, 38th Annual Fall Institute on Intellectual Property Law, presented by the Houston Intellectual Property Association and the University of Houston Law Center, September 30, 2022
- Patenting Your Idea or Invention, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Clinical Informatics Conference, May 24, 2022
- Panelist, What the Tech? The Future of Medical Device Predictive Analytics & Big Data, Womble Bond Dickinson Thought Leadership Event, February 24, 2022
- Regulatory Guidance: Start to Finish, Mayo Clinic's Symposium on Regenerative Medicine and Surgery, November 5, 2021
- Authorship vs. Inventorship, and Patenting in the Life Sciences, Innovation Partners at Texas A&M University, October 29, 2021
- Growing the Intellectual Property Portfolio for Your Canna-biz, Womble Bond Dickinson’s Seed to Sale Webinar Series, September 28, 2021
- Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics – New Frontiers in Product Development in the Life Sciences Sector, Licensing Executives Society Annual Meeting, September 27, 2021
- Intellectual Property: Protecting Innovation at the Intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences, Womble Bond Dickinson's Everything from Everywhere Virtual Summit, January 29, 2021
- Licensing: COVID-19 Impact, 58th Annual Conference On Intellectual Property Law, Institute for Law and Technology, November 9, 2020
- Licensing Agreements and Patent Exhaustion, Tennessee Intellectual Property Law Association, November 6, 2020
- IP & Licensing Basics Course, Licensing Executives Society, UT Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas, April 2019
Honors and Awards
- Ranked in Chambers USA for Intellectual Property (Texas), 2025-Present
- Selected to the Texas Rising Stars list by Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters) in Intellectual Property, 2018 – 2021
- Named to IAM Patent 1000, Prosecution, Intellectual Asset Management Magazine, 2024 - Present
