Sunil Rao

About Sunil Rao

Sunil Rao is an associate with Smart & Biggar in Toronto who helps inventors and companies turn new technology into patents. The work covers drafting applications and taking them through prosecution, with a focus on electrical and computer technology, artificial intelligence and fintech, along with cleantech and nanotechnology.

Rao came to law from engineering. An electronics engineering degree from K.J. Somaiya College of Engineering (2002) was followed by a master's and then a doctorate in electrical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Ph.D. finishing in 2009. A J.D. from the University of Toronto came in 2020, and the Ontario call followed in 2021. In 2024, Rao became a registered patent agent in both Canada and the United States.

That scientific depth isn't just on paper. Graduate research looked at how thin semiconductor films form through chemical vapor deposition, and Rao's name appears as a co-author on many published papers about how those materials are made and processed. There's hands-on industry time too: depositing thin metal layers by physical vapor deposition on a high-volume production line at a global semiconductor manufacturer.

In February 2026, the associate led a Spark Centre IP masterclass titled "IP for Hardware & Software Companies."