Erise IP shareholder Adam Seitz was recently featured by Missouri Lawyers Weekly after being named a 2019 Missouri Lawyers Weekly Law Firm Leader.

The feature backgrounds how Seitz and shareholder Eric Buresh began to anticipate changes that would affect patent law, ultimately leading to the founding of Erise IP.

Seitz told Missouri Lawyers Weekly, “I learned through that entire process . . . that I need to have faith; that I’m not in control, number one, and that God, who’s in control, has a good plan for us.”

The day the doors opened on Erise IP, the new firm represented Sony, Garmin, Ford, and video game company Ubisoft Electronic Arts, among other large companies. At that time, around 10 people worked for the firm.

Erise needed to grow quickly to cover the work of its existing clients, and getting patent attorneys to move to Kansas City wasn’t easy, Seitz said. Erise IP now is home to more than 30 people with a roster of successful clients. Building that team is one of the accomplishments of which Seitz is most proud.

On January 22, 2019, the Supreme Court unanimously held Helsinn v. Teva maintains status quo of pre-America Invents Act precedent regarding secret sales.

Many in the Patent Bar, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, pointed to the catchall language in Section 102(a)(1) that an invention was considered “on sale” or “otherwise made available to the public.” The USPTO interpreted Section 102(a)(1) as changing the pre-AIA law, such that if the sale was secret, then it was not barring.

Erise IP shareholder Jennifer Bailey told Managing IP, “The patent office’s interpretation is more consistent with European practice, which requires an enabling prior public use or sale to be an invalidating sale/use barring patentability.”

Managing IP recently released rankings for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for 2018, which looked at top petitioners, patent owners and law firms based on data listed in the Docket Navigator database.

Among the findings, Erise IP ranked No. 13 for “Petitioner Law Firm,” with 32 petitions before the PTAB. The firm ranked 23 rd for total PTAB disputes.

Erise is the highest ranking boutique firm on the petitioner law firm list and is the only Kansas City-based firm that is ranked in the top 50 of either “Petitioner Law Firm” or “Patent Owner Law Firm.”

Individually, shareholders Paul Hart, Adam Seitz and Eric Buresh ranked among the top 50 petitioner attorneys in 2018, a tremendous accomplishment for a boutique firm.

Erise IP would like to congratulate shareholder Adam Seitz for being named a Law Firm Leader for the 2019 Missouri Lawyer Awards.

Seitz was selected for his leadership in elevating the firm into a household name in the world of intellectual property law.

The Law Firm Leader is awarded to chairpersons, managing partners or other law firm executives who demonstrated extraordinary vision, innovation and leadership during the year.

With nearly 19,000 employees, the federal government is Kansas City’s largest employer.

Erise IP shareholder Adam Seitz recently spoke to the Kansas City Business Journal regarding the affect the government shutdown, which is now at 12 days and counting, would have on the federal court system and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Seitz said the courts and the USPTO are able to “collect some fees outside congressional appropriations, which allows them to continue operating unaffected so far.”

He added, “We expect they have enough money to keep operating about three weeks, which should take them to about Jan. 11.”

Erise IP is on a bit of win streak when it comes to IPRs on behalf of FanDuel and DraftKings.

The team of partners Eric Buresh and Megan Redmond and technical adviser Callie Pendergrass have won four straight decisions for the daily fantasy sports companies against the same plaintiff.

As reported by the Kansas City Business Journal, the “the Patent Trial and Appeal Board determined that Erise and its co-counsels showed by ‘a preponderance of evidence’ that at the time the invention was made, the patent’s subject matter was obvious to a person having ordinary skill and therefore unpatentable.”

Erise IP partners Eric Buresh and Megan Redmond and technical adviser Callie Pendergrass succeeded on all four IPRs on behalf of FanDuel and DraftKings against the same plaintiff over the past two months.

As highlighted by Law.com, Erise defeated challenges that FanDuel and DraftKings infringed on the plaintiff’s patents “on methods of storing user profiles, keeping out underage gamers, and linking games with user location.”

The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled in favor of Erise IP and clients FanDuel and DraftKings after the panel ruled all of the challenged claims of the plaintiff’s patent were invalid as obvious.

It marks the fourth of four IPR wins Erise has secured for FanDuel and DraftKings in the past month against the plaintiff.

Law360 reported on the most recent win for FanDuel and DraftKings, who were represented by partners Eric Buresh and Megan Redmond, and technical advisor Callie Pendergrass, writing that in its final decision, the PTAB said, “the two [daily fantasy sports] companies had shown the five separate claims of the patent were ineligible for patent protection.”

The patent, which had 25 claims, five that were challenged, covered a “type of gaming system where players can use their cellphones to connect to a central server in order to play.”

“The PTAB rejected all five, saying each would be obvious to a person of skill in the art at the time of their invention,” Law360 wrote.

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

The guide, which is published by Thomson Reuters, named Adam Seitz, Eric Buresh, Michelle Marriott, Jason Mudd and Marshall Honeyman as Super Lawyers and recognized Carrie Bader and Megan Redmond as Rising Stars.

It marks the eighth consecutive year Mudd has been recognized for his work in Intellectual Property Litigation, who is joined by Michelle Marriott for the second consecutive year. For Buresh and Seitz, it is the sixth straight year they’ve been listed for Intellectual Property, which included Honeyman, who returns to the list.

Both Bader and Redmond were honored for their Intellectual Property Litigation work, marking the second and eighth consecutive years, respectively, being named Rising Stars.

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 – 2018, Rising Stars 2009
Intellectual Property

Marshall Honeyman, 2005, 2018
Intellectual Property

Michelle Marriott, 2017 – 2018
Intellectual Property Litigation

Jason Mudd, 2011 – 2018, Rising Stars 2014 – 2015
Intellectual Property Litigation

Adam  Seitz, 2013 – 2018, Rising Stars 2010 – 2012
Intellectual Property

Rising Stars

Carrie Bader, 2017 – 2018
Intellectual Property Litigation

Megan Redmond, 2011 – 2018
Intellectual Property Litigation

Erise IP is pleased to announce the addition of Karyn Kesselring as an associate in the firm’s Denver office. She focuses her practice on intellectual property litigation, particularly defensive matters, utilizing her varied background and experience to assist clients.

Kesselring earned her law degree in June from the University of Colorado Law School where she was a member of a number of organizations on campus including the Intellectual Property Association at the University of Colorado Law School, the Women’s Law Caucus and the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association. She was a Production Editor for the Colorado Law and Technology Journal, and prosecuted patents and drafted documentation for start-up businesses in CU Law’s Entrepreneurial Law Clinic.

“Karyn was outstanding as a summer associate with us last year, and we were all impressed with her personally and with her meaningful contributions to our cases,” said Abran Kean, a shareholder in Erise IP’s Denver office. “We are thrilled that she is on our team full-time, and Karyn will be an important asset to our firm, and to our clients, for years to come.”

Prior to law school, Kesselring was a quality specialist at a pharmaceutical company where her duties included auditing, reporting and remediation of documentation issues within manufacturing batch records and logs. She later worked at a medical device company, working on regulatory affairs and quality assurance.