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Pamela Councill

is a senior associate in the Intellectual Property Litigation Group for Alston & Bird, LLP in the firm’s Atlanta office. She has represented clients as plaintiffs and defendants in district court litigation.  Pamela also has extensive experience representing both complainants and respondents in Section 337 litigation before the U.S. International Trade Commission.  Pamela has also represented Petitioners and Patent Owners in post-grant review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, including Covered Business Method Patent Reviews and inter partes review proceedings.  Pamela has familiarity with a variety of technologies, including wireless and mobile communications technology, automotive technology, e-commerce software, pharmaceuticals, appliances and small electronics, and infant gear and furniture. For more information or to contact Pamela please visit her firm profile page.

Recent Articles by Pamela Councill

New PTAB Rules Level the Playing Field for Patent Owners in IPR

After much public comment and debate, new changes to rules for post-grant administrative trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) go into effect on May 2, 2016. These final rule changes, which are the second set of changes since the America Invents Act (AIA) went into effect, are the culmination of a series of PTAB listening tours and public comments to the rule change proposals published in August 2015. Among other things, the new rules are intended to address concerns that patent owners were at a disadvantage in responding to patent challenges, particularly during the pre-institution stage of a PTAB proceeding. The rule changes also introduce certification requirements for documents filed with the PTAB, confirm the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) standard, as well as exceptions to the BRI standard for expiring patents, and adopt an appellate-style word count limit for major briefs.