November 14, 2023
IAM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 14, 2023
WASHINGTON, DC— Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) recognized Finnegan partners Erika Arner, Virginia Carron, Mike Jakes, Charles Lipsey, Mark Sweet, Ningling Wang, and Naoki Yoshida in its 2024 Global Leaders guide. The honor recognizes their excellence and experience related to creating, protecting, managing, transacting, and enforcing critical patent rights, as well as their innovation, inspiration, and dedication to serving their clients. To qualify for listing, attorneys must be ranked in the gold tier of the IAM Patent 1000.
Erika Arner, managing partner of Finnegan, is a nationally recognized leader in trial practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and related appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She consistently ranks as one of the top three female attorneys appearing in PTAB trials and was named a PTAB Litigator of the Year by Managing Intellectual Property. She has argued and won a number of landmark cases at the PTAB and Federal Circuit for both patent challengers and patent owners. Erika’s practice focuses on patent office trials, client counseling, and litigation, with an emphasis on electronic technology and computer software. She has represented patent owners and petitioners in more than 200 PTAB trials, most as lead counsel. In addition to her extensive experience in patent office and appellate practice, Erika is a well-known authority in 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 the PTAB.
Virginia Carron practices patent and trademark litigation and counseling. Her broad client base includes a large food and beverage company; a company involved in refining, chemicals and biofuels, forest and consumer products, fertilizers, polymers and fibers, pollution control and glass; an international manufacturer of hand-made cigars; and numerous international clients in various fields. Virginia has been recognized as one of WIPR’s Top 100 Most Influential Women in IP and an IP Star Top 250 Women in IP and a patent and trademark IP Star in Georgia by Managing Intellectual Property.. Virginia’s litigation experience includes numerous U.S. district court trials, trials before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Her practice also includes inter partes review (IPR) procedures before the PTAB.
Mike Jakes concentrates his practice on patent litigation and related counseling. He serves as lead counsel in federal district courts and the ITC, before arbitration panels, and on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Mike deals mainly with computer, electronics, semiconductor, software, and medical device technologies. Mike has vast experience at the Federal Circuit, having argued more than 50 appeals and prepared and filed briefs in many more. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Giles S. Rich at the Federal Circuit and is a coauthor of Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit: Practice & Procedure, published by LexisNexis. He was also a member of the Federal Circuit’s Advisory Council.
Charles Lipsey, named as the 2013, 2017, and 2018 “Outstanding IP Litigator of the Year (Virginia)” at the Managing Intellectual Property Americas IP Awards, focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation, particularly patent infringement litigation. Charles has handled cases covering a diverse spectrum of mechanical, chemical, and electrical technologies, with an emphasis on cases involving biotechnology and pharmaceutical chemistry. Since joining Finnegan in 1978, Charles has amassed a wealth of experience in patent infringement litigation, patent arbitration proceedings, and patent interferences. He is a Fellow of American College of Trial Lawyers.
Mark Sweet focuses his practice on portfolio analysis; due diligence investigations; interference proceedings; reissue and reexamination proceedings; preparing patentability, validity, and infringement opinions; and client counseling. Mark is a registered patent attorney with extensive experience handling procurement matters before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), including patent application drafting and prosecution, conducting examiner interviews, filing appeals to and presenting oral arguments before the PTAB, interference proceedings, reissue proceedings, and reexamination proceedings. Mark also has significant experience in IPR and post grant review (PGR) proceedings. Mark’s technical expertise is diverse and includes working with technologies involving pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, polymers, industrial coatings and films, and clean energy and renewable resources such as photovoltaics, fuel cells, renewable feedstocks, hydrogen-based fuel, and bioplastics. He served as a primary examiner at the USPTO, where he handled polymer-based technologies.
Ningling Wang, managing partner of the firm’s Shanghai office, has more than 20 years of experience in various intellectual property fields. Her practice involves patent prosecution, opinions, due diligence, client counseling, licensing, and patent litigation in the areas of chemicals, chemical engineering, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, semiconductor materials, 3D printing, and nanotechnology. Ningling has extensive experience working with multinational and Chinese companies, providing legal advice on IP portfolio management, due diligence, licensing, litigation, and trade secret protection and enforcement. She has been involved in various cases before the ITC and U.S. district courts. She also has represented companies with IP enforcement in China, including judicial and customs enforcement actions.
Naoki Yoshida, managing partner of Finnegan’s Tokyo office, handles a broad range of intellectual property matters, including litigation, patent portfolio management, intellectual property due diligence, client counseling, licensing and negotiations, patent prosecution, and pre-litigation strategic counseling. Naoki has significant experience in global intellectual property issues involving multinational corporations. With his fluency in Japanese and appreciation for cultural differences, he frequently counsels clients on unique intellectual property issues arising out of negotiations and disputes involving Japanese companies. Naoki has participated in proceedings in Japanese courts in connection with U.S. patent infringement litigation.
IAM previously recognized Finnegan’s excellence earlier this year, naming 10 of the firm’s attorneys to its IAM Strategy 300 List, and 46 of the firm’s attorneys to the top tier rankings in the IAM Patent 1000.
Erika Arner, Managing Partner
erika.arner@finnegan.com
Anand K. Sharma, Chair
anand.sharma@finnegan.com
About Finnegan
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP is one of the largest IP law firms in the world. From offices in Atlanta, Boston, London, Munich, Palo Alto, Reston, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo, and Washington, DC, the firm practices European, German, UK, and U.S. IP law. In addition to services related to all aspects of patent, trademark, and copyright law, including counseling, prosecution, licensing, and litigation, Finnegan provides counseling and litigation services in advertising, privacy, and a wide spectrum of additional IP-adjacent commercial matters, including trade secrets, international trade, the Internet, e-commerce, government contracts, antitrust, and unfair competition. For additional information on the firm, please visit www.finnegan.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
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