Erise IP is pleased to announce it has welcomed Nathan Byers and Pamela Johnson as technical analysts, expanding its team of bioengineering and biomedical experts. Byers and Johnson will assist the Denver and Kansas City offices, respectively.

“With Nathan and Pamela on board, I know both our team and our clients will benefit from their incredible experience. We’re thrilled to welcome both to the Erise team,” said partner Adam Seitz.

Learn more about each of the firm’s newest technical advisors below.

Pamela Johnson
With a background in bioengineering, chemical and biomedical engineering, and chemical biology, Johnson is equipped to handle all technical aspects of intellectual property law. She previously served as a technical analyst intern for the firm in 2020.

Prior to joining Erise, Johnson spent almost four years as a graduate research assistant, focusing on using emulsion chemistry to control electrospun fiber morphology, topography, and drug release at the University of Kansas Biomaterials and Personalized Tissue Engineering Laboratory. She earned her Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Kansas and her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, with emphasis in materials concentration, from Bucknell University.

Nathan Byers
Byers is a biomedical scientist who is passionate about transferring innovative technologies from research laboratories to the public. His graduate research employed genetic engineering techniques, molecular biology, and behavioral analysis to better understand the underlying mechanisms of epilepsy. At Erise, he utilizes his scientific background to provide the firm’s clients with essential technical advice.

Prior to joining the firm, Nathan helped academic researchers drive technologies forward using a comprehensive intellectual property background focused on patentability and commercialization. He previously worked in IP and licensing support at Colorado State University (CSU) System’s technology transfer office.

Erise is pleased to announce it has welcomed Tyler Knox as an associate attorney in the Denver office, where he focuses on patent litigation. He originally joined the firm in May 2019 as a clerk while completing law school.

In his intellectual property practice, Knox focuses on high-technology patent litigation and post-grant proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Knox’s background blends experience and education in diverse environments. Prior to joining Erise, Knox spent more than six years as a Primary Patent Examiner at the USPTO, including while attending law school. There he enjoyed the opportunity to take on additional roles reviewing junior examiner office actions, training new and experienced examiners, and reviewing technology center office actions for quality assurance compliance. Knox relies on these experiences to help others navigate complex patent issues in sophisticated technology areas.

He earned his legal degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, his master’s degree in engineering management from Missouri University of Science and Technology and his undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

After graduating from West Point, he commanded units of engineer paratroopers at home and abroad as a U.S. Army officer for six years. Knox is also a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) and Project Management Professional (PMP).

Erise shareholders Adam Seitz and Paul Hart, along with associate Cliff Brazen, successfully petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) for inter partes review (IPR) on behalf of a technology client in a database patent infringement case against an intellectual property licensing company.

The Erise team argued that 42 claims of the plaintiff’s patent are “obvious” based on a combination of prior art. The company attempted to get the IPR rejected, saying the defendant’s “failure to propose claim constructions for a trio of terms in the patent renders the petition fatally deficient,” but the PTAB agreed Erise had met its burden.

As Law360 reported, the judge stated, “Based on the evidence available on the preliminary record, [the defendant] has demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of success in showing that at least one of the challenged claims of the ‘985 patent is unpatentable on the grounds raised in the petition.”

Erise is pleased to announce it received top accolades from Managing Intellectual Property’s 2021 IP Stars awards. In addition, five firm attorneys earned individual recognition.

For the ninth year in a row, the firm was named a “Highly Recommended” firm in Intellectual Property – the top ranking a firm can receive in the awards program. In addition, shareholders Jennifer Bailey, Eric Buresh, Marshall Honeyman and Adam Seitz, as well as counsel Jason Mudd, were each named Patent Stars.

Find the complete list of attorney honors here and firm honors here.

In selecting the winners, Managing Intellectual Property’s team of research analysts surveyed thousands of Intellectual Property attorneys in private practice and in-house in addition to conducting interviews with attorneys.

Erise shareholders Adam Seitz and Paul Hart were successful at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Federal Circuit on behalf of a technology client in a patent infringement case centering on a method for transmitting “signals from a plurality of transmission antennas.”

After hearing oral arguments, the three-judge panel affirmed an April 2020 decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, who upheld the patent after INVT, an affiliate of a patent licensing firm, made claims of patent infringement.

The panel found that the plaintiff’s patents were “rendered obvious by two patents from the early 2000s and a paper presented at the 1999 Global Communications Conference…” Law360 reported.

The IP Boutique Has Made the Exclusive Shortlist Second Year in a Row

Erise is pleased to announce it has maintained its place on the Managing Intellectual Property annual awards’ shortlist, making Erise one of the few firms to be nominated in the same category two consecutive years, and the only Kansas City-based law firm on either year’s list.

Partners Eric Buresh and Adam Seitz were both honored for their litigation work in front of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB); Eric was honored in 2020 and Adam in 2021.

Erise is the only firm of its size to be listed among other BigLaw firms with multiple offices and thousands of attorneys on the list. In addition, Erise is the only Kansas City firm to make this list, cementing its position as the leading firm in Kansas City for intellectual property work.

The short lists are compiled by Managing IP after obtaining information from thousands of firms, IP practitioners and clients through interviews, email and online surveys. Researchers then evaluated the data to arrive at the shortlist of PTAB practitioners who are excelling at their work.

The Managing IP awards are considered the most comprehensive and widely respected IP law firm awards event in the world. Now in its 16th year, the program covers a broad range of IP practice areas and more than 30 jurisdictions.

After a year of national awards as one of the Top 25 intellectual property firms in the entire country, Erise shareholders Adam Seitz and Eric Buresh spoke with the Kansas City Business Journal about how they managed to add new clients, attorneys and office space all during the pandemic.

The resulting article, Erise IP’s Growing National Reputation Leads to More Clients, Attorneys and Office Space, outlines how the firm’s high profile defense verdicts in Texas and wins at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) made Erise, a midwest boutique IP firm, one of the elite law firms in the nation.

Read the full article in the March 29 edition of the Kansas City Business Journal.

Erise is pleased to announce it has been recognized as one of the top 20 elite national firms for its work at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in 2020 by Law360.

Ranked 16th, Erise is the only firm of its size to be listed among other BigLaw firms with multiple offices and thousands of attorneys. Indeed, Erise was one of only three law firms on the list with fewer than 100 attorneys. On a per capita basis, this ranking shows Erise is handling more high stakes PTAB work than any other firm in the nation. In addition, Erise is the only Kansas City firm to make the list cementing its position as the leading firm in Kansas City for intellectual property work.

The Law360 ranking is the latest in the firm’s recent string of significant national recognitions for its patent litigation work. In February, Erise was ranked the 24th best performing firm in the nation for patent litigation work in Patexia’s 2021 Patent Litigation Intelligence Report. Then, in September, Erise was recognized again by Patexia in its IPR Intelligence Report, which named three Erise shareholders among the most active in the entire nation at PTAB.

Erise is pleased to announce shareholder Adam Seitz was named to the Managing Intellectual Property Awards’ shortlist, where he’s honored as a nationwide Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Practitioner of the Year. The winner will be announced April 7 at a virtual awards ceremony.

The short list was compiled by Managing IP after obtaining information from thousands of firms, IP practitioners and clients through interviews, email and online surveys. Researchers then evaluated the data to arrive at the shortlist of PTAB practitioners who are excelling at their work.

Seitz focuses his practice on patent litigation and post grant reviews. He is one of the most active PTAB attorneys in the country having been involved with well over 100 IPRs. Seitz also has been lead counsel in nearly as many cases at both the ITC and in District Courts across the country. He represents top-tier clients across many different technology areas from telecommunications to fitness devices to advanced medical components. Seitz is routinely ranked as one of the top 50 attorneys at the PTAB for his work on IPRs, and he has helped lead Erise to be recognized as one of the top 20 firms at the PTAB where it is the only firm of its size to receive that honor.

The Managing IP Awards are considered the most comprehensive and widely respected IP law firm awards event in the world. Now in its 16th year, the program covers a broad range of IP practice areas and more than 30 jurisdictions.

Erise is pleased to announce it has been ranked among the best performing IP law firms in the United States – ranking 24th – in Patexia’s 2021 Patent Litigation Intelligence Report. The firm was also recognized among the top 50 most active defense firms in the country in the same Patexia report, ranking 44th.

In addition, Erise ranked higher than any other law firm in Kansas City, including its BigLaw peers in Patexia’s best performing defense law firms (54th).

Over a three-year period from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2020, Patexia evaluated 2,841 law firms, 9,131 unique patents in 10,552 patent cases, 11,786 companies and 12,780 attorneys. Patexia evaluated overall activity and success to develop a weighted average to determine rankings.

Founded in 2010 to bring efficiency and transparency to intellectual property by leveraging the power of data, technology and experts, Patexia is the largest network for IP professionals and routinely provides these independent assessments for rankings of IP firms in the U.S.