PITTS LAKE - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Registered Patent Attorney and Partner

Andrew Lake is a registered patent attorney and Partner of the firm. Mr. Lake focuses his practice on intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and product designs. He assists clients in the preparation and prosecution of patent, trademark, and copyright applications, and counsels clients in the acquisition, protection, defense, and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Mr. Lake received a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor's degree in Physics from Cleveland State University. Mr. Lake graduated from the University of Akron School of Law in 1999. His technical areas of specialty in patent law include electrical and mechanical devices, wireless communications, computer networks, control systems, engine technology, semiconductors, software, medical devices, and radiography. Prior to law school, Mr. Lake earned a MBA degree from John Carroll University and gained extensive industry experience working in the engineering and computer programming fields for precision manufacturers of medical devices, radiographic scanning components, surgical tools, ultrasonic diagnostic equipment, and electrical discharge machines. Mr. Lake is admitted to the Bars of the State of Tennessee, U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and various U.S. District Courts. He is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association, Knoxville Bar Association, Tennessee Intellectual Property Law Association (TIPLA), and American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA). Practice Areas Intellectual Property Procurement and Enforcement

Job Titles:

• of Counsel
• Counsel to Pitts & Lake

Carl Bennett is Of Counsel to Pitts & Lake, P.C. and currently practices in the area of intellectual property law. He assists clients in the acquisition, protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights as well as the licensing of intellectual property. He was an equity partner of a large international law firm and later a founding partner of a boutique law firm in Phoenix, Arizona prior to joining Pitts & Lake, P.C. Before going to law school, Mr. Bennett started his professional career as an accountant working primarily as an auditor in the Memphis office of Haskins & Sells, CPA's (then a "Big 8" CPA firm later known as Deloitte Haskins & Sells, and now known as Deloitte Touche Tomatsu). He joined Cook Industries, Inc., then a "Fortune 200" company dealing in merchandising, storage and shipping of commodities, starting as an accounting manager, then promoted to southwest region accounting manager, and later to assistant controller, serving as the manager of the U.S. accounting group and the coordinator between the accounting group and the information technology group. Mr. Bennett uses his accounting background to assist clients in the calculation of damages in intellectual property litigation. In the 1980's, Mr. Bennett formed and managed a computer software development company that developed, sold and installed complex and highly-integrated computer systems designed to run on mainframe computers, and later modified to run on micro computers. His responsibilities included the design, documentation, testing and installation of the company's computer systems. Mr. Bennett served as an electronics technician in the United States Air Force at military bases in the U.S., the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam where he installed, monitored and maintained telephone multiplexing and microwave radio transmission equipment used in military communications networks, similar in operation to the Bell telephone systems maintained in the U.S. at that time. After receiving an honorable discharge from the military, Mr. Bennett worked as an instrumentation technician in Proctor & Gamble's automated Pringles plant in Jackson, Tennessee repairing and installing electronic controller devices that controlled the flow, speed, thickness, temperature, pressure and other aspects of the automated manufacturing process. Practice Areas Intellectual Property

Job Titles:

• Staff Member

Kaying Kue is a former patent examiner and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office in all patent legal matters. Kay focuses his practice on patent granting, examination assistance, examiner procedures, and invention search strategies. Clients are assisted by Kay every step of the way, from starting a patent application to completing, finalizing, and obtaining the patent from the USPTO. Kay has a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Kay graduated in the patent law study class of 2010 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office Academy. Kay is experienced in working on and examining patent applications in manufacturing technical areas including semiconductor, electronics, circuitry, PCB, programming, and mechanical device manufacture. Many clients are helped by Kay with invention search strategies. Kay is admitted to the bar of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He was awarded by the USPTO in recognition of ten years of service in the government of the United States of America.

Job Titles:

• of Counsel
• Patent Attorney

Bob Pitts is a patent attorney and a co-founder of the firm. His practice focuses on dispute resolution of patent and trademark matters. He has been trial counsel for intellectual property litigation matters that have resulted in two 8-figure and several 7-figure awards. Bob is also active in counseling companies and individuals in connection with patent and trademark portfolios, and patent and trademark prosecution. He has worked with many start-up businesses through multi-stages of research and development financing including businesses that have developed international patent/trademark portfolios and that have sold for over $1 billion. He has been selected as one of the best lawyers in Tennessee by Business Tennessee magazine six times. He has also been selected for the Mid South Super Lawyers Magazine Super Lawyers list eleven times. Practice Areas Intellectual Property Litigation