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Christopher J. Cariello

Partner

New York

Chris tackles the most challenging legal issues in IP and tech at every stage of litigation. From trial court to the Supreme Court, he crafts legal strategy and briefs that win.

Chris has served as appellate counsel to tech titans and telecommunications giants in high-stakes copyright litigation, innovators facing billion-dollar trade secret verdicts, and national retailers with key trademarks on the line. He has authored dozens of briefs in the federal courts of appeals and U.S. Supreme Court. And he has argued and won key victories in precedent setting cases applying copyright secondary liability doctrines, the DMCA, and the Lanham Act.

Chris is most passionate about the IP issues confronting innovators—and he joins the battle wherever and whenever it is taking place. He is currently litigating a generational copyright case in the Supreme Court while directing legal strategy and briefing at the district court level in numerous challenges to generative AI large language models. He is a consummate team player when partnering with trial teams to craft winning legal strategies and themes, brief dispositive motions, win key legal and evidentiary rulings at trial, and construct a record with an eye towards appeal. And Chris regularly provides strategic counseling to clients from startups to leading public companies on product design, pre-complaint strategy, or regulatory compliance issues in the copyright and AI space.

Chris also has a wealth of experience in class action defense in both trial and appellate courts, including several appellate victories defending the denial of class certification. He also maintains a generalist appellate practice, representing clients in white collar criminal defense, founder disputes, contract actions, bankruptcy, and constitutional law.

  • Chris maintains an active pro bono practice. He led a team that prevailed in both federal district court and in the Second Circuit in one of the nation's most closely watched police transparency cases. The year before, he argued and won a precedent-setting parole appeal in New York’s Appellate Division on behalf of a former juvenile offender. And he has won victories for clients in immigration cases and cases presenting novel legal issues under freedom of information laws.

    Prior to joining Orrick, Chris was a law clerk to Judge Robert D. Sack of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Chief Judge Carol B. Amon of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

  • Chris has been a lead legal strategist and brief writer in numerous high-stakes IP matters, including:

    • Sony Music Entertainment v. Cox Communications (4th Cir./SCOTUS) – represented Cox in overturning a $1 billion copyright infringement verdict before the Fourth Circuit and persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to grant cert. in a case that will decide how copyright applies to the internet
    • Appian v. Pegasystems (Va. Ct. App.) – represented Pegasystems in overturning a $2 billion trade secret verdict, the largest in history
    • Generative AI litigation – Briefing lead and legal strategist defending multiple companies against copyright challenges to LLMs, including New York Times v. Microsoft and Advance Local Media v. Cohere
    • Doe v. GitHub (9th Cir.) – lead appellate counsel for GitHub and Microsoft in the first generative AI case to reach a federal court of appeals, presenting major test of DMCA copyright management information claims
    • Unicolors v. H&M (SCOTUS) – represented Unicolors overturning a Ninth Circuit ruling jeopardizing innumerable copyright registrations

    Chris has also been lead appellate counsel in numerous appellate victories, including:

    • Capstone Studios v. CoxCom (9th Cir.) – argued and won unanimous precedential decision holding that conduit ISPs are not subject to DMCA subpoenas
    • Kars 4 Kids v. America Can (3d Cir.) – twice argued and won unanimous appellate decisions in trademark case giving Kars 4 Kids a full win
    • Massoumi v. Ganju (NY. App. Div.) – argued and won decision upholding summary judgment in Zocdoc co-founder’s lawsuit challenging his ouster from the company
    • Smart Apparel v. Nordstrom (9th Cir.) – argued and won reversal of dismissal of complaint in contract action arising from cancellation of orders
    • Erikson v. Kast (9th Cir.) – argued and won unanimous precedential decision overturning copyright infringement verdict

    Additional engagements reflecting the breadth of Chris’s experience in trial and appellate courts include:

    • hiQ v. LinkedIn (N.D. Cal.) – briefing lead in summary judgment motion that defeated plaintiff’s case and established counterclaim as a matter of law
    • Briefing lead in the Fourth Circuit on behalf of major retailer overturning $100 million trademark verdict
    • Moussouris v. Microsoft (9th Cir.) – represented Microsoft in successfully defending denial of class certification
    • Ward v. Apple (9th Cir.) – represented Apple in successfully defending denial of class certification