Posts Tagged: "Law Firms"

With more than 15 years of experience in IP law, including several years as in-house counsel for a large German semiconductor company, Tim Wyckoff joins KDB from SpryIP, LLC, which he founded in 2009. His practice focuses on patent preparation and prosecution in electrical engineering, computer science and other technology applications, portfolio management and client counseling.

An experienced intellectual property attorney with a practice focusing on patent preparation, prosecution, and strategic IP portfolio management, Jim counsels clients on best practices for developing strong patents and valuable IP assets domestically and internationally.

Leason Ellis, a boutique intellectual property law firm specializing in patent, trademark and copyright protection and litigation, has announced that Cameron Reuber and Joel Felber have been promoted from Associate to Partner. Reuber joined Leason Ellis in 2010, and he has established a diverse litigation practice counseling those seeking to strategically identify, protect and exploit intellectual property assets. Felber joined Leason Ellis in 2012 and has focused his practice on domestic and international intellectual property protection, particularly with regard to computing hardware and software technologies.

Fish & Richardson announced today that Kurt Glitzenstein has been named the Practice Group Leader (PGL) for its Litigation Group, the firm’s largest practice. In his new role, Glitzenstein will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the firm’s premier intellectual property and commercial litigation practice, which includes 250 lawyers in 12 offices, and which for over a decade has handled more patent litigation than any other law firm in the country.

When measuring the overall success and efficiency of a law firm’s patent prosecution practice, there are several metrics available, including overall allowance rate, time to disposition, and average number of office actions. Allowance rate is one of the most common metrics, but allowance rate merely tells us how many applications received NOAs, and nothing of the quality of those applications. Besides merely getting an application allowed, clients are also concerned about the quality and scope of their claims. One way to determine this is by measuring how well a law firm preserves claims through prosecution. This article shows a ranking of the top 10 firms that lose the fewest independent claims in prosecution among IP Today’s top patent firms for 2015.

Law firms are coming under growing scrutiny for a lack of effort in addressing hacking concerns or even coming clean with the threats which they have faced. A cybersecurity report released in February of this year by Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) lambasted law firms for being at high risk for cyber intrusions while the industry standard for cybersecurity remains much lower than for other industries. Law firms who deal with incredibly valuable intellectual properties should be acutely aware of the risks that they face from hackers, especially those from overseas. Patented technologies have been the target of international hackers in recent months. Just this May, the U.S. Justice Department charged six Chinese nationals with stealing IP related to wireless technologies developed by a couple of American companies.

Some time ago, a colleague posed an interesting question to me in hopes that Lex Machina’s data might be able to shed some light: Has the kind or size of firms handling patent cases changed much over the last few years? In other words, are companies increasingly choosing smaller, cheaper boutiques, or are they relying more often on “BigLaw” firms?

Q. Todd Dickinson, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, has joined Novak Druce Connolly Bove + Quigg, LLP as a partner. He will also assume the role of Global Chair of its Client Select Strategic Services Group. Dickinson will be co-based in the Firm’s Washington, D.C. and San Francisco/Silicon Valley offices.