Erika Harmon Arner

Partner

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Erika Harmon Arner

Partner

+1 571 203 2754 +1 571 203 2754
erika.arner@finnegan.com erika.arner@finnegan.com

901 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001-4413

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Erika Harmon Arner, former managing partner and chair of Finnegan, represents some of the largest technology companies in the world. She is a trusted advisor to executives and legal leaders, who count on her to develop and execute strategies to tackle their thorniest intellectual property (IP) challenges. Erika draws on decades of legal experience as well as executive experience leading Finnegan and serving in leadership roles across multiple organizations. In 2026, Forbes named Erika as one of only fourteen IP attorneys on its national list of America’s Top Women Lawyers.

Erika has argued and won a number of landmark cases for both patent challengers and patent owners at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) . She has worked on over 100 Federal Circuit appeals, arguing there 16 times. Since leading and winning the very first PTAB trial, she has served as lead counsel on more than 200 trials and been named PTAB Litigator of the Year by Managing Intellectual Property.

In addition to her extensive experience in patent office and appellate practice, Erika is a well-known authority on patent-eligibility jurisprudence. Since representing the petitioners before the U.S. Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos, she has handled dozens of cases involving issues related to patentable subject matter before the Federal Circuit, U.S. district courts, and PTAB.

Erika is a leader in the IP bar. She currently serves as treasurer of the Intellectual Property Owner’s Education Foundation (IPOEF) and is a past president of the PTAB Bar Association. She co-founded the Washington, DC chapter of Women in IP Network (WIN) and is a champion for women in IP.

Over her career, Erika has been recognized for her post-grant and patent litigation practices. The Legal 500 U.S. named her one of the leading lawyers in post-grant proceedings and inducted her into the patent prosecution Hall of Fame. She has also been named as a Global Leader as well as recognized for her practice in the DC region by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) and honored by Managing IP. For the past several years, she has been named by Managing IP as one of the “Top 250 Women in IP” as well as a “Patent Star” nationally and in Virginia.

Erika previously served on the firm’s management committee. She has led both the electrical and computer technology practice group and the patent office practice.

Experience

Representing SharkNinja in five IPRs relating to robot vacuums.

IPR2020-00732, -00733, -00734, -00735, -00863, PTAB

Represented petitioner SharkNinja in district court litigation and related inter partes reviews related to robot vacuum cleaner technology. Successfully cancelled all claims iRobot asserted in the district court litigation at the PTAB.

1:19-cv-12125, D. Mass., Judges Burroughs, Kelley
IPR2020-00733, -00734, -00735, -00863, PTAB, Judges Grossman, McMillin, Melvin, Saindon, Wieker

Successfully represented petitioner Google in inter partes reviews (IPRs) involving a patent relating to media recommendations based on geographic location. After the initial petitions were denied institution on Fintiv grounds, Finnegan filed a request for rehearing, leading to both petitions being instituted. After oral argument, all challenged patent claims were found unpatentable and cancelled.

IPR2021-00204, -00205, PTAB, Judges Belisle, Boudreau, Fenick, Moore

Member of team representing Google as the petitioner at the PTAB, where the Board instituted inter partes review (IPR) of patents asserted in the litigation.

IPR2020-00020, -00080, -00081, PTAB, Judges Hagy, Sawert, Wormmeester

Represented Google as petitioner in an inter partes (IPR) review at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), successfully cancelling all challenged claims related to natural language processing and information retrieval. On subsequent appeal, successfully represented Google before the Federal Circuit, securing affirmance of the PTAB’s decision.

IPR2020-00755, PTAB, Judges Droesch, McShane, Medley
22-1245, Fed. Cir., Judges Bryson, Reyna, Taranto

Represented appellees Shure Acquisition Holdings, Inc. and Shure Incorporated in an appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In a precedential decision, the Federal Circuit unanimously upheld the validity of Shure’s substitute claims and rejected ClearOne’s procedural challenges to the Board’s ruling. The underlying inter partes review (IPR) was one of the first to utilize the Board’s Motion to Amend Pilot Program.

21-1517, Fed. Cir., Judges Moore, Newman, Hughes
IPR2019-00683, PTAB, Judges Zecher, Jurgovan, Zado

Insights

Conference

2026 PTAB Bar Association Annual Conference 2026 PTAB Bar Association Annual Conference

March 18-20, 2026

Washington, DC

Webinar

What’s Next After a PTAB Discretionary Denial? Potential Challenges, Avenues to Judicial Review, and Strategic Considerations What’s Next After a PTAB Discretionary Denial? Potential Challenges, Avenues to Judicial Review, and Strategic Considerations

July 17, 2025

Webinar

Seminar

Evolving Patent Strategies: Recent PTAB Trends, AI Challenges, and Biotech Innovations Evolving Patent Strategies: Recent PTAB Trends, AI Challenges, and Biotech Innovations

May 22, 2025

Tokyo

Seminar

Recent Developments and Practice of US Patent and Trademark Law - Beijing Seminar Recent Developments and Practice of US Patent and Trademark Law - Beijing Seminar

May 16, 2025

Beijing

Conference

Best Practices and Tech in Intellectual Property Conference Best Practices and Tech in Intellectual Property Conference

March 24-25, 2025

Tel Aviv

Panel Discussion

Women Shaping the Future of Business, Tech & IP Women Shaping the Future of Business, Tech & IP

March 23, 2025

Tel Aviv

Professional Recognition

"Arner is a renowned PTAB lawyer and has been busy representing Fortune 500 players and gaming company[ies] Playtika in the past year. In 2022, she also became the outfit’s managing partner."

“Instrumental here is the command and control of Erika Harmon Arner—the country's foremost USPTO trials expert, according to the IAM Patent 1000 research. ‘A real go-getter’ who has ‘taken the Finnegan group to a different level’, she is ‘super high quality'’, ‘articulate and thoughtful’, and ‘a top lawyer’. ‘She is the best—not figuratively, literally,’ enthuses one client. ‘Her presentation style is calm, easy to understand and persuasive, and her ability to see and avoid the traps set by the other side (or the PTAB panel) is impressive to behold. Her knowledge of the case law is also unparalleled.’”

“Peers take special note of her ‘cutting edge IPRs’ and Supreme Court cases.”

“Finnegan has a repertoire of highly experienced individuals to fill lead counsel and back-up roles on contested proceedings before the PTAB. They include rainmaker Erika Harmon Arner, who boasts ‘brilliant, accurate insights into cases and consistently comes up with the goods.’”

“Arner also has gained a steady following based on her experience representing clients in high-profile disputes over patentable subject matter…Her ability to clearly communicate complex legal matters is one of the reasons why clients flock to her…”

“Arner…is a guru on business method patents. She filed some of the earliest covered business method and inter partes reviews, stealing a march on many of her peers.”

“A ‘supremely talented lawyer,’ Arner has a lot to offer and is hailed as a thought leader on patent eligibility. However, she particularly wows the market with flawless performances in USPTO trials and in appeals to the Federal Circuit.”’

“Erika Harmon Arner is a go-to for post-grant proceedings, recognized in the IP field as a pioneer in PTAB litigations.”

“One of, if not the best post-grant practitioner in the country, Erika Harmon Arner continues to garner loud applause from the market as an ‘incredibly creative, thoughtful and goal-oriented’ lawyer.”

“The firm has become especially prominent for its post-grant practice – at the forefront of which is Erika Arner in Reston, Virginia.”

“Erika Harmon Arner is revered as one of the top post-grant experts…”

“Erika Harmon Arner is one of the foremost PTAB specialists in the country, having taken part in more than 100 proceedings at the Patent Office.”

“Thomas Irving and Erika Harmon Arner are other essential contacts for the address book, the former known for his creative strategies and the latter as a dynamic lead counsel.”