Stuart Beraha advises leading Japanese companies on sophisticated cross-border technology and intellectual property transactions.

Mr. Beraha leverages unparalleled experience helping clients develop, acquire, and exploit technology, content, brands, and other intellectual property to achieve their business goals. He advises on a full spectrum of licensing and partnering transactions, including:

  • IP and commercial aspects of mergers and acquisitions
  • Joint venture and strategic alliance transactions and related agreements
  • Technology, software, and content licenses and assignments
  • Patent licenses and assignments
  • E-commerce, search, and other Internet-related transactions
  • Development, joint development, consulting, and outsourcing agreements
  • Life sciences licensing, development, distribution, and commercialization transactions
  • Trademark licenses and related branding agreements

He draws on more than two decades of experience in the Japanese market, and possesses a nuanced understanding of the interplay between practices of Japanese and foreign companies.

A recognized leader at the firm and in his field, Mr. Beraha serves on the firm’s Technology Committee, Pro Bono Committee, and EEO Review Board, and he previously served on the Associates Committee. He co-teaches a class on international IP licensing at Keio University’s Law School.

Before joining Latham, he was a partner at another leading international law firm in Tokyo.

Mr. Beraha is a registered foreign lawyer in Japan as a member of the Dai-Ni Tokyo Bar Association.

Mr. Beraha’s transactional experience includes representing:

Semiconductor

  • Kioxia, a leading global supplier of flash memory and solid state drives, in:
    • Western Digital’s investment in Y7, Kioxia’s newest NAND flash memory fabrication facility in Yokkaichi, Japan
    • Its joint venture agreements with Western Digital to produce NAND flash memory products
  • Toshiba in:
    • The IP and commercial aspects of the US$18 billion sale of Toshiba Memory to a consortium led by Bain Capital*
    • Its semiconductor patent license with Micron and its flash memory alliance with M-Systems (including as to R&D agreements, semiconductor manufacture and supply agreements, and patent and technology license agreements)*

Internet

  • Z Holdings, the holding company of Yahoo Japan, in its US$30 billion business integration with LINE, the largest Japan tech deal announced in 2019 and winner of the ALB Japan Law Awards’ M&A Deal of the Year and TMT Deal of the Year, and ALB Korea Law Awards’ M&A Deal of the Year
  • Yahoo Japan in its sponsored and algorithmic search transactions with Google, earlier sponsored search transactions with Overture (including the acquisition of Overture KK), and other search-related and commercial transactions*
  • Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in the commercial and licensing aspects of its Global Open Network (GO-NET) joint venture with Akamai Technologies for the development and operation of a new blockchain-based online payment network*
  • SoftBank in Alibaba’s restructuring of its holdings in Alipay*
  • Sega in its first two licenses of massively multiplayer online games for the Chinese market*

Technology

  • TDK in the IP and commercial aspects of its US$3 billion joint venture with Qualcomm for radio frequency front-end (RFFE) modules and RF filters*
  • Hitachi in the IP and commercial aspects of selling its global hard disk drive business to Western Digital*
  • Fujitsu in its global UNIX server strategic alliance with Oracle America (formerly Sun Microsystems)*

Life Sciences

  • Otsuka Pharmaceutical in negotiating a research collaboration and license agreement with US-based Schrödinger, to leverage Schrödinger’s computational drug discovery platform
  • A Japanese medical devices company in acquiring a US medical devices company’s IP and related assets
  • Otsuka Medical Devices in its development and commercialization agreement with ReCor Medical*

*Matter handled prior to joining Latham

Bar Qualification

  • Japan (Registered Foreign Lawyer)
  • New York

Education

  • JD, New York University School of Law, 1993
  • BA, University of Michigan, 1990

Industries