Katie Lynn Joyce filed a declaratory judgment action a few months ago against a non-practicing entity that had made threats against Comcast, the company’s second such filing she has led. The first, filed after another entity secured a verdict against a different technology company, ended in a resolution within three months. Comcast responded by handing her the follow-on case.
Joyce is a partner at Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP where she litigates copyright and patent disputes for clients in generative AI, semiconductors and telecommunications. Her current docket includes several matters at the center of ongoing debates over how courts will treat AI.
Joyce serves as lead counsel defending NVIDIA against a putative class action over the company’s alleged use of digital 3D objects to train AI models, a case she says sits at the intersection of copyright, the DMCA and machine learning. Beaulier v. NVIDIA Corp., 3:26-cv- 02647 (N.D. Cal., filed March 26, 2026).
In the consolidated OpenAI Copyright Litigation, she is part of the Keker team representing OpenAI, where she led the damages strategy across the multidistrict litigation and directed discovery efforts in the class action proceedings.
In a separate matter, Joyce led the invalidity and non-infringement defenses for three of twelve patents originally asserted against Netflix. Her team invalidated two of those patents under Alice, narrowing the case before the remaining claims were dismissed and the court entered judgment for Netflix. Broadcom Corp. et al. v. Netflix Inc., 3:20-cv-04677 (N.D. Cal., filed July 14, 2020).
“I was particularly proud of how the team steadily dismantled a sprawling patent case until Netflix achieved a complete victory,” she said.
Joyce did not set out to become an IP litigator. In law school, she focused on public interest work, spending her summers at nonprofits and steering clear of firm jobs. Two clerkships followed graduation, and she says the experience taught her she wanted to become a trial lawyer, without a fixed idea of practice area. At Keker, she tried criminal and civil matters before settling into intellectual property work. “I relish a challenge, and I love learning new things,” Joyce said. She credits mentors including Michelle Ybarra, Sharif Jacob, Leo Lam, Elliot Peters and Bob Van Nest with shaping how she practices.
Before law, Joyce taught kindergarten, an experience she draws on when explaining emerging technology to judges and juries. “Teaching young children to read and explaining cutting-edge AI to judges aren’t quite the same, but both require breaking complex concepts into language your audience can understand,” she said.
Joyce also maintains a pro bono practice representing prisoners and immigrants, work she calls an essential part of being a lawyer.
Her advice to younger attorneys comes from a former colleague, Morgan Sharma, who died recently. “Find a job where you have the opportunity to learn, to be challenged, to flex intellectual muscles,” Joyce said. “The chance to contribute something and the sense of accomplishment that comes with it. Also, social interaction, the chance to meet new people, community. The opportunity to depend on others and have others depend on you. And the possibility of growth, of becoming something more than you were yesterday.”
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