I have broad advisory and contentious experience across the full range of intellectual property rights, including trade marks, copyright, design rights, domain names and patents.
I regularly advise clients on clearance, brand strategy and enforcement-related issues, and have substantial experience conducting litigation on intellectual property matters in front of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, High Court, and Court of Appeal, as well as at the UKIPO and EUIPO. I also have substantial commercial IP experience, having spent a year as legal counsel at the Wellcome Trust and Wellcome Collection, including drafting and advising on procurement, IP commercialisation, and IP licensing agreements.
I have particular interest and experience in the technology and art sectors, including advising on IP issues in relation to NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and data mining by generative AI.
I have acted for clients across a variety of sectors, and most recently acted as lead assistant in cases on behalf of Peloton and SkyKick – the latter of which dealt with key issues around trade mark law and bad faith (and will be heard at the UK Supreme Court later this year).
In 2019 I obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law & Practice from the University of Oxford. I was listed as a "key lawyer" in the Legal 500 UK 2021 and 2022, with the following testimonial: “Natasha Rao is brainy, unflappable, solves every problem thrown at her, one of the strongest IP litigation associates out there, with the energy levels of a small army.”
