Posts Tagged: "Law Firms"

Venable LLP, an American Lawyer Global 100 law firm, announced that Justin E. Pierce has been named chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Division. He succeeds William D. Coston, who previously held the position. Mr. Coston will resume his full-time practice, focusing on litigation and counseling in antitrust and intellectual property matters.

Thomas Anderton has joined the Intellectual Property & Technology Practice at Squire Patton Boggs as of counsel in San Francisco. Mr. Anderton has extensive life sciences experience, with a particular focus on biopharma IP portfolios. Mr. Anderton joins the firm from Zonare Medical Systems, an ultrasound solutions company, where he was General Counsel and Secretary with responsibility for the company’s legal and business strategy with a strong emphasis on IP protection, portfolio management and transactions.

Munck Wilson Mandala elected Kelly Chen and Jacob “Jake” LaCombe as new partners of the firm, effective Jan. 1, 2017. Chen is a member of MWM’s litigation section, and LaCombe is a member of MWM’s intellectual property section.

Alston & Bird has announced the election of 20 lawyers to its partnership, effective January 1, four of which, are within the intellectual property discipline. Shri Abhyankar (Atlanta), Xavier M. Brandwajn (Silicon Valley), Christopher TL Douglas (Charlotte), and Matthew W. Howell (Atlanta).

As the dearly departed Prince once sang, it could be a sign of the times. Only in this case the reference is about big law firms moving into the intellectual property (IP) space, including acquiring IP boutiques. For example, Polsinelli acquired the Novak Druce IP practice in early 2016. However, when big law firms acquire IP boutiques it does not always—or even usually—work. Because if a big firm acquires a patent prosecution-based boutique it may not make sense because billable hours and rates for patent prosecutors do not compare with those of litigators. It also creates internal conflicts of interest. But the situation could have changed. This time the acquisitions might work because in many respects IP boutiques focus on administrative trial work at the USPTO due to the America Invents Act (AIA), which is more like litigation, and will not create the same conflicts of interest. But not everyone has the same opinion.

Over the last two years, the Australian patent and trade mark attorney profession has seen a number of significant changes. The 2013 amendments to the Patents Act 1990, meant that Australian patent and trade mark attorney firms could incorporate. This led to the consolidation of some of Australia’s biggest patent and trade mark attorney firms. These consolidated firms have subsequently listed on the Australian Stock Exchange to raise capital and have since been on an aggressive acquisition spree to achieve market dominance… In short, there are inherent conflicts of interest when an individual or entity is obliged to act for both clients and shareholders.

The new office will be led by renowned IP professional Lissi Mojica, who will serve as a principal and will play a vital role in expending the firm in the greater-Washington D.C. area. Prior to joining Brooks Kushman, Mojica was a principal with multinational law firm Dentons’ IP and technology practice group, focusing on post-grant proceedings.

Kacvinsky Daisak Bluni PLLC (KDB) announces the arrival of experienced New York mechanical arts patent lawyer, Giuseppe Molaro, as principal. Molaro joins KDB from New York-based Leviton Manufacturing, where he served as senior intellectual property counsel since 2010. He specializes in patent prosecution and due diligence in the mechanical arts.

Mr. Solomita is an experienced patent litigator who has led major cases before US District Courts and the US International Trade Commission. He defends large technology clients from patent claims, and he also has significant experience prosecuting patent applications and challenging the validity of patents before the US Patent and Trademark Office. Prior to joining Sheppard Mullin, Mr. Solomita worked at an IP boutique, during which he was twice seconded to work as in-house patent counsel for Panasonic Corporation in Japan.

As anyone who’s worked at a law firm can attest, lawyers at a firm use each others’ experience to inform their strategy in a given case. Firm-wide emails asking if anyone has appeared in front of a particular judge or tribunal are routine and allow lawyers to benefit from the insights their colleagues provide. Big data analytics allow lawyers to gather this same information, but on a much larger scale. For instance, analytics platforms allow attorneys to view their judge’s complete history, including every decision issued and every case cited, to identify the legal precedent the judge finds most persuasive.

Baker Botts L.L.P., a leading international law firm, announced that Wayne Stacy and Sarah Guske will be joining the firm’s San Francisco office as Partners in the Intellectual Property practice group. They will join Stuart Plunkett and Jonathan Shapiro who joined the firm in May.

Fenwick & West announced that Ryan Straus and Dan Friedberg have joined the firm as counsel launching its Payment Systems practice. The addition of Straus and Friedberg adds significant payment systems depth to Fenwick’s growing FinTech practice, expanding the firm’s ability to advise clients on the legal, business and regulatory landscape around online and mobile payments, consumer and peer-to-peer lending, virtual and digital currency, the blockchain, as well as prepaid, loyalty and rewards programs.

We compiled a list of the top patent firms, which are ranked based on the total number of U.S. utility patents that issued in 2015 where the patent firms were listed on the front of the utility patents. We have included only patent firms that have obtained at least 50 utility patents. We made an attempt to correct for typographical errors. We did not eliminate company legal departments from the list.

National intellectual property firm Kacvinsky Daisak Bluni PLLC recently expanded its legal team in the Washington, D.C. area with the arrivals of experienced IP lawyers, Judith L. Toffenetti, PhD and Paul Skwierawski. Toffenetti joins as a partner, bringing decades of experience in life sciences and biotechnology. Skwierawski joins as counsel, focusing on prosecution of medical portables and construction equipment technologies. Their arrivals mark KDB’s fifth and sixth hires within a year.

It has become more apparent in recent years that cybercriminals looking to profit from sensitive data are zoning in on law firms and their wealth of client information. Get ahead and prepare for clients asking questions about your security posture by closely examining your firm’s environment. Taking this preemptive action will help you detect gaps where confidential client data could be at risk, regardless of where and on what devices the information is stored. This assessment is easy to accomplish through the many proven services currently available in the market. Understanding where exactly your firm’s sensitive client data is being stored and how it’s being used is a critical first step to safeguarding that information.