Erise is pleased to announce Robin Snader has been elected a shareholder, effective January 1. With his promotion, the intellectual property law boutique grows its number of shareholders to 10 between its Overland Park, Kansas, headquarters and Denver office.

With degrees in mathematics, computer information and science engineering, Snader possesses a strong technical understanding of technology that comes into play regularly in his representation of clients’ patent prosecution needs.

Prior to entering the legal industry, Snader was a researcher at the University of Illinois, culminating in a doctoral degree in the field of Computer Science with a focus on computer security and wireless networking. He remains active in the field, continuing to conduct research and publish new work in a variety of venues.

Erise associate Cliff Brazen recently discussed his intellectual property career with Patent Education Series and offered up advice for others who are considering a career in IP.

Brazen told Patent Education Series that he began pursuing IP law after realizing an engineering career wasn’t for him. Both of his parents are attorneys and he decided to take an introduction to law class to learn more about their profession and ended up really enjoying it.

“Pretty shortly thereafter I decided on law school,” he said. “At first, because I knew I did not want to be an engineer, I kept my options open and was not committed to IP law from the start. But pretty quickly I learned that IP law let me get the best of both worlds.”

For those considering a career in law, not just IP, Brazen offered up the following, “While money is important, you will be spending a lot of time with your coworkers. For me, it was important that I really enjoyed the people I worked with and that I fit in with the culture. Doing that has definitely had a positive benefit on my mental health and helped me avoid attorney burnout.”

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board is considering a request it received sent by Erise shareholder Adam Seitz on behalf of Garmin, Law360 reported.

In the request, Garmin is asking the PTAB’s Precedential Opinion Panel “to hold that the timing of U.S. International Trade Commission investigations shouldn’t be used to deny parallel patent challenges, especially since the ITC can’t invalidate patents,” Law360 wrote.

In May 2020, the PTAB ruled in Apple v. Fintiv that six factors would be considered to deny IPR institution if there was parallel litigation, but the POP request argues that “ITC proceedings would never be able to meet four of the six factors outlined in Fintiv, and would virtually never be able to meet the other two.”

Erise shareholders Michelle Marriott and Eric Buresh were successful at the Federal Circuit on behalf of client Ubisoft in a patent case that originated in 2013.

The three-judge panel affirmed a February 2019 decision by a Delaware magistrate judge, who awarded Ubisoft summary judgment.

The plaintiff “sued Ubisoft in 2013, alleging that the ‘Just Dance’ series of games infringed its patent on a system of controlling virtual environments in response to audio signals,” Law360 reported.

Erise is pleased to announce that Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers has recognized seven of its shareholders in its latest annual guide.

The guide, which is published by Thomson Reuters, named Adam Seitz, Eric Buresh, Jennifer Bailey, Marshall Honeyman, Michelle Marriott, Jason Mudd and Megan Redmond as Super Lawyers.

Redmond is listed by Super Lawyers for the first time after being recognized on the Rising Stars list from 2011 to 2018. She was recognized for Intellectual Property Litigation.

Seitz has been honored for 11 straight years (eight by Super Lawyers and three on the Rising Stars list) in Intellectual Property. For Buresh and Honeyman, it’s their eighth and third years straight, respectively.

In Intellectual Property Litigation, it marks the seventh straight year for Mudd, the third consecutive for Marriott and the second straight for Bailey that they were included on the Super Lawyers list .

Up to 5 percent of attorneys in each state are named as Super Lawyers, and up to 2.5 percent are named Rising Stars. The selection process includes peer nominations, third-party research and an evaluation by a panel of attorneys.

The lists, which are published nationwide in Super Lawyers magazines and in leading city and regional magazines and newspapers across the country, serve as a resource for attorneys and consumers seeking legal counsel.

Super Lawyers 

Eric Buresh, 2013-2020, Rising Stars 2009
Intellectual Property

Jennifer Bailey, 2019-2020, Rising Stars 2010 – 2016
Intellectual Property, Intellectual Property Litigation

Marshall Honeyman, 2005, 2018-2020
Intellectual Property

Michelle Marriott, 2017-2020
Intellectual Property Litigation

Jason Mudd, 2016-2020, Rising Stars 2014 – 2015
Intellectual Property Litigation

Megan Redmond, 2020, Rising Stars 2011-2018
Intellectual Property Litigation

Adam Seitz, 2013-2020, Rising Stars 2010 – 2012
Intellectual Property

For the fifth consecutive year, Erise has earned the “Best Law Firms” recognition from U.S. News – Best Lawyers. Erise earned a Tier 1 ranking in the practice area of Litigation – Intellectual Property. This distinction sets Erise at the top of the Kansas City market for IP litigation.

“This award confirms what our clients already know—we are one of the top IP trial firms in the country and in Kansas City. In the past 3 years, no other firm in Kansas City has tried more patent cases, or received more patent defense verdicts, than Erise,” said Managing Partner Adam Seitz, who was also recognized individually for his work in IP Litigation. “This was never more clear than last December when we took home huge victories in the ITC and in the Eastern District of Texas with trials starting on the very same day,” continued Seitz. In addition to its impressive trial wins, the firm continues to rack up victories at the PTAB where it is ranked in Top 20 law firms in the entire country for its success with IPRs. No other firm its size is on that list.

Erise shareholder Jason Mudd was recently featured by Missouri Lawyers Weekly in a story looking at how the COVID-19 pandemic could be a reason for an uptick in non-practicing entities (NPEs) asserting patents.

Erise client Unified Patents, in April, released a study that found the number of lawsuits filed by NPEs and other patent-assertion entities nearly doubled in the years following the Great Recession of 2008.

Mudd noted he saw “a slight uptick in NPE activity in the early months of the pandemic that is consistent with Unified’s hypothesis,” Missouri Lawyers Weekly wrote.

Mudd urges companies that are facing financial difficulties due to the pandemic and considering selling IP that they’re no longer using to not sell it to NPEs.

“In other words, transfer it to an actual operating entity, as opposed to going to an NPE,” he said.

Patexia, the world’s largest network for intellectual property professionals, released its fourth annual IPR Intelligence Report 2020, which found that three Erise attorneys at the firm are among the most active at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

Over a five-year period between July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2020, Patexia evaluated 915 law firms, 7,708 unique cases, 4,886 unique patents and 79,523 unique claims. Patexia evaluated overall activity and success to develop a weighted average to determine rankings.

Erise, as a law firm, ranked 16 out of the Top 100 firms in the US. The only firms ahead of Erise were Am Law 100 firms with far more attorneys than Erise, a remarkable statement on the amount and quality of work done by the attorneys at Erise.

Individually, Erise’s attorneys also outperformed their BigLaw peers. Shareholders Eric Buresh, Adam Seitz and Paul Hart rank among the top 60 most active practitioners representing petitioners. Buresh is the 24^th most active petitioner attorney, Setiz ranks 41^st and Hart is 59^th. In addition, Buresh is the 67^th most active overall.

Jason Mudd, who is among the top 200 most active, is ranked as the 38^th best performing attorney for petitioners.

These rankings place Erise attorneys in the top 6% of all attorneys in the US.

Erise IP shareholder Marshall Honeyman was recently published by LEDs Magazine on the timely interest in Ultraviolet light C-band (UV-C) LED technologies and how they may complicate the patent process.

Honeyman believes the COVID-19 pandemic will trigger a deluge in the number of patent filings as it relates to this type of technology that can disinfect illuminated surfaces. Because the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) maintains patent applications in secret for 18 months after filing, we won’t know final numbers for some time, Honeyman is basing his prediction on what he’s seen in practice and historical metrics.

He writes that the “leveraging for patent rights relating to UV-C LED-based antimicrobial technologies will happen much in the same way they did in the development of white-light LEDs. Many filings will be made for concepts that are never implemented.”

Erise was recognized by Patexia, the world’s largest network for intellectual property professionals, in the fourth annual IPR Intelligence Report 2020 for being one of the top 50 best performing law firms at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

Over a five-year period between July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2020, Patexia evaluated 915 law firms, 7,708 unique cases, 4,886 unique patents and 79,523 unique claims. Patexia evaluated overall activity and success to develop a weighted average to determine rankings.

Erise is ranked as the 16^th most active law firm representing petitioners at the PTAB and was the 25^th most active firm overall. In addition, Patexia found that Erise is the 41^st best performing petitioner law firm and the 45^th best overall.

This ranking places Erise in the top 4% of all firms in the US.