ALLIANCE IP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- IP Paralegal
- Senior IP Paralegal
Della is a seasoned IP paralegal with over 20 years of experience. She assists Alliance IP in all phases of US and foreign patent prosecution, supporting attorneys in the preparation and filing of US and PCT international applications, including researching foreign filing license and first filing requirements.
Derek Casper is a registered patent attorney with extensive experience in patent prosecution, patent litigation, patent licensing, and IP due diligence. He has represented a broad range of clients from multi-national Fortune 100 companies to individual inventors. Derek has performed legal work in a variety of technologies including microprocessors, semiconductor memory, storage devices, touch sensors and controllers, wired and wireless network transport protocols and devices, cellular telephone protocols (including LTE and LTE-A), hybrid vehicle control systems, mechanical apparatuses, software, business methods, and many others.
Derek's prosecution experience includes drafting and prosecuting hundreds of US, PCT, and foreign patent applications. His prosecution work includes pre-filing patentability assessments, pre-appeal and appeal procedures, and post grant procedures, including extensive experience with reissue applications. Derek has participated in numerous aspects of patent litigation, including initial case assessment, pleadings, discovery management, prior art searching, invalidity and infringement contentions, inter partes review filing strategy, and claim construction briefing. Derek's licensing experience includes drafting patent license agreements, mining portfolios for assertable patent assets, drafting claim charts on identified targets, developing infringement and validity arguments in support of asserted patent assets, and rebutting non-infringement and invalidity arguments. He has also reviewed patent portfolios and IP agreements for small and large scale IP acquisitions and written opinion letters focusing on invalidity and non-infringement.
Prior to joining Alliance IP, Derek worked at a large multi-national firm, a boutique law firm, and as an in-house attorney for one of the world's largest patent licensing companies, where he led patent drafting, patent procurement, and patent licensing support efforts for several portfolios of worldwide patent assets in the semiconductor and telecom space. Prior to beginning his legal career, Derek worked in a research and development group at a large multi-national corporation focusing on high speed interconnect schemes and microprocessor cache memory.
Doug's practice focuses on the preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications, patent portfolio management and counseling, patent analysis, IP due diligence, and patent litigation support.
Doug began his legal career at an intellectual property law firm in Portland, Oregon where he represented clients ranging from patent-savvy global technology corporations to solo inventors looking to file their first patent application. There, he prepared and prosecuted numerous patent applications, wrote invalidity and non-infringement opinions, drafted claim charts and inter partes reexamination petitions in support of patent litigation, and performed IP due diligence in support of acquisition and merger efforts.
Doug then returned to a large multinational corporation, where he had previously been a circuit designer, to take an in-house position as a patent portfolio manager. Doug managed global patent portfolios comprising thousands of assets in the software, data center, and networking technology areas. He successfully operated in a high-volume environment, managing over $2M in annual outside counsel spend and working with dozens of outside attorneys to file over 200 new patent applications annually over a several-year span.
In his in-house role, Doug worked with a variety of stakeholders to identify key strategic technologies and procure patent rights in those areas. He worked to increase patent portfolio value by identifying and developing key patent assets and minimizing resources spent on less-important ones. He evangelized the importance of patents to the inventor community through continuous outreach efforts and developed strong relationships with key technical personnel to ensure the legal department was kept appraised of developments in technology areas of strategic importance.
Doug's engineering and legal careers have provided him a solid foundation to manage and develop patent assets in a wide range of technologies including cloud and data center architectures (software and hardware), networking, packet processing, operating systems, semiconductor manufacturing and processing, semiconductor device physics, processor architecture, artificial intelligence, machine learning, thermal management of server and rack systems, and medical devices.
Outside of work, Doug enjoys the outdoors. Various activities such as mountaineering, cycling, hiking, and backpacking have held his interest throughout the years, with thru-hiking being his current focus. He spent several months on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2018 and currently has his sights set on the Pacific Northwest Trail. Doug also enjoys photography and international travel, is an avid fan of the Wisconsin Badgers, and is involved with various colorectal cancer non-profit organizations.
Dusty Vogelpohl is an intellectual property attorney that provides solutions to any intellectual property issues that arise. As a registered patent attorney, Dusty has experience in all aspects of patent law. For example, he has experience drafting and prosecuting patent applications; managing patent portfolios; and conducting patentability, freedom to operate, and infringement analyses. Dusty also has extensive experience in patent litigation. Such experience includes legal research, prior art investigations, legal filings, drafting claim charts, developing evidence, developing legal theories, drafting motions, attending hearings, participating in mediation proceedings, conducting negotiations, and preparing settlement agreements. Dusty has also assisted in arguing before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Erin has a multi-faceted role at Alliance IP. She assists all members, employees and clients while handling a wide range of tasks, such as office management and accounting. Her responsibilities include organizing and executing employee programs and events, managing accounts payable and receivable, handling mail, maintaining bookkeeping records, and communicating with clients.
Erin graduated from Arizona State University cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education. She is a certified teacher in the state of Arizona, holding endorsements in Middle School Mathematics and Structured English Immersion.
Prior to joining Alliance IP, Erin was an educator for 8 years, during which she taught 7th and 8th Grade Mathematics and Algebra. She was involved in many leadership roles including helping to mentor new teachers and assisting with writing a curriculum for the school district in which she worked.
Irene Chu is an IP paralegal with experience in all aspects of US and foreign patent prosecution. Irene assists Alliance IP in all stages of the prosecution process, including managing patent office filings and internal document processes throughout prosecution, reviewing and processing correspondence from the USPTO, monitoring official and internal deadlines, proof-reading patents upon issuance, handling the payment of maintenance fees, and corresponding with clients throughout.
Irene has overseen the intake of several patent portfolio transfers at Alliance IP, compiling all the necessary information efficiently for her attorney team to take over prosecution as quickly and smoothly as possible, and ensuring that the client can make a seamless transition from another law firm. She has also coordinated with a network of patent professionals around the globe to assist clients in obtaining patent protection in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Prior to joining Alliance IP, Irene was at a large multi-national law firm with an established practice in intellectual property. There, Irene worked with a cross-country team to help manage patent portfolios for clients ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, and participated in training new department hires.
Irene graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a B.A. in Rhetoric. She has further completed the Paralegal Certificate Program from Southern Methodist University.
Joel Watkins Shaffer is a registered patent attorney with extensive experience in patent preparation and patent prosecution. She has represented a broad range of clients, including various multinational Fortune 500 companies and individual inventors. Joel has performed preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications relating to a wide variety of computer, electrical and mechanical technologies, including digital and wireless communications, networking, neural networks and machine learning, imaging, beamforming, electro-magnetic systems, multiprocessor and embedded systems, optical systems, and additive manufacturing.
Joel has patent licensing experience in drafting and reviewing Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and Joint Development Agreements (JDAs) for a multinational company; these responsibilities included generating amendments and counseling business unit leaders regarding the impact of various clauses in these instruments.
Prior to obtaining her law degree, Joel completed fifteen years of electrical engineering work at two different multinational semiconductor companies, with a focus on memory devices and microcontroller applications. In roles as a design and applications engineer, Joel represented her employers in industry standard-setting meetings (JEDEC) for FSRAM and microchip Interface Standards, and worked with logic verification tools to simulate, exercise, and demonstrate performance of embedded DRAM designs. Joel has also worked in the Cadence design environment and with various programmer boards, programming languages, and development tools. During this time, Joel co-authored a patent and joined the technical ladder.
Kevin advises clients on a range of patent-related issues, including patent prosecution, IP due diligence, and patent litigation. Kevin has expertise in all aspects of patent prosecution, including extensive experience before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Prior to joining Alliance IP, Kevin was a patent attorney at an AmLaw 100 firm. After obtaining his Ph.D., Kevin worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University. His graduate and postdoctoral research focused on quantum information and quantum optics, in both fiber and free space, with applications to quantum cryptography, quantum computing, and telecommunications. His work has been published in several scientific journals, including Physical Review Letters and the Journal of Modern Optics.
Kyle Komenda is a registered patent attorney with experience in all aspects of patent prosecution, patent litigation, patent licensing, and IP due diligence. In addition to his expertise assisting clients in patent matters, Mr. Komenda has experience counseling, securing, and enforcing trademark rights for his clients.
Diverse clients, from multi-national Fortune 100 companies to venture-funded start-ups and sole proprietorships, have relied on Mr. Komenda to secure patent rights toward their most important products and services. Mr. Komenda has broad experience securing IP rights in a diverse array of technologies, including computing hardware, software, networking, medical devices, clean tech, aerospace, oil and gas, semiconductor, consumer products, and power generation technologies. Mr. Komenda draws heavily from his broad experience in complex patent litigation to draft and prosecute patents primed for the ruthless scrutiny of litigation and due diligence analyses.
In his personal life, Mr. Komenda enjoys spending time with his lovely wife and four exuberant children. He volunteers time in his church and youth sports organizations, while making a point to continuously imperil his joints coaching and competing in indoor volleyball leagues.
Laleh Jalali has over 25 years of experience as a U.S. patent attorney, including patent prosecution, patent portfolio management, patent analysis in the context of offensive and defensive patent assertions, patent pageants and patent licensing negotiations. She is familiar with a wide array of technologies, including wireless standards (LTE, 5G (NR), WiFi, WiFi Aware, Passpoint, mmWave, wireless power, to name a few), wireless platforms and implementations, artificial intelligence and machine learning, federated learning in mobile edge networks, Internet-Of-Things, data center, computer hardware and software including computer architecture, semiconductor technologies including transistor process flow and packaging, graphics, and medical devices.
Laura Christiansen is an IP Paralegal with experience in all aspects of US and foreign patent and trademark prosecution. She assists the attorneys at Alliance IP in all stages of US and international patent and trademark filing, prosecution, and maintenance, including preparing and filing new patent and trademark applications, amendments and responses, assignments, information disclosure statements, petitions, powers of attorney, all other administrative filings and trademark maintenance, as well as interacting directly with clients, the USPTO, WIPO, and foreign associates.
Prior to joining Alliance IP, Laura was a paralegal at a national general practice law firm with a substantial intellectual property group. She started her career as a receptionist and moved into office management. While working in office management, Laura regularly handled overflow work for the legal assistants and paralegals in her office and discovered that she really enjoyed legal work, especially intellectual property. She pursued this path and was a legal assistant for the IP, litigation, and transactional groups. As a legal assistant, Laura gradually gained experience and responsibility in IP, which was her highest area of interest, finally transitioning to an IP Paralegal role specializing in US and foreign patent and trademark prosecution. Laura has 7+ years of experience working in IP and has managed small and large domestic and international patent and trademark portfolios.
Laura graduated from Western New England University with a B.A. in English Literature, summa cum laude. Laura is an avid dog lover and enjoys hiking, cooking, reading, and spending time with her family.
Leslie Dalglish is a registered patent attorney specializing in patent prosecution. She has represented clients ranging from multi-national Fortune 100 companies to individual inventors. Her technical areas of expertise include computer security hardware and software, computer software, microprocessors, wired and wireless network transport protocols and devices, cellular telephone protocols, medical devices, and business methods.
Leslie's legal experience includes drafting and prosecuting US patent applications, Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent applications, and foreign patent applications. Leslie has worked extensively with foreign counsel to develop claim strategies for obtaining intellectual property rights in foreign countries. Leslie has experience in performing patentability searches and assessments and drafting claim charts on identified targets. Leslie has also counseled clients regarding patent validity and infringement, which includes drafting invalidity and non-infringement opinion letters. Additionally, Leslie has participated in patent litigation including motion and brief preparation, correspondence with adverse parties, and witness preparation.
Prior to joining Alliance IP, Leslie worked at a large intellectual property law firm. Leslie acted as an attorney liaison between the law firm and a corporate client, working on-site with the client to manage its patent portfolio. Leslie also previously worked at an intellectual property boutique law firm. Prior to her legal career, Leslie worked as a Systems Engineer with Electronic Data Systems Corporation where she led a team that implemented an In-Sequence Shipping System for a General Motors assembly plant.
Job Titles:
- Legal Assistant
- IP Paralegal
Mario Monterroso is a Legal Assistant supporting the Alliance IP team through all stages of patent prosecution. His duties include preparing final documents for filing in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, reviewing the status of pending applications, docketing tasks in the firm's database, filing formal documents, and gathering necessary documents from the client, among other duties.
Prior to joining Alliance IP, Mario was a Paralegal Clerk for a large multi-national law firm with a well-recognized intellectual property practice, where he assisted the intellectual property team with analyzing and proofing various documents submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In that role, Mario developed an extensive knowledge of administrative duties related to patent prosecution.
Mario graduated from Southern Methodist University cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science, minoring in Economics. He enjoys spending time with loved ones, riding his bicycle often, and traveling to visit new places.
Michael Casper is an IP paralegal supporting attorneys in the patent prosecution process. His responsibilities include drafting letters and official documents, preparing legal files, ensuring the accuracy of database inputs, monitoring client and official deadlines, handling and organizing prosecution documents, assisting with docketing tasks including monitoring the docketing database, and filing firm documents in a timely manner, among many other duties.
Michael graduated from Brigham Young University in 2017 with a B.S. in Sociology. He immediately began his IP legal assistant career following his graduation. Michael enjoys spending time outdoors, is involved in athletics, and volunteers at a local high school as an assistant coach for the varsity football team.
Ross Culpepper is a full-service intellectual property lawyer that works closely with his clients to solve a diverse and complex range of intellectual property issues. Ross has experience in all aspects of intellectual property law, including patent prosecution and portfolio development, patent portfolio monetization and licensing, patent litigation, patent proceedings before the USPTO (e.g., inter partes reviews), and technology related business transactions (e.g., IP due diligence, technology service agreements).
Ross secures intellectual property rights for clients of all sizes and in numerous industries. In particular, he develops valuable patent portfolios through strategic patent mining and patent prosecution practices, and his portfolio development experience covers a diverse range of technology areas, including computer architecture (e.g., microprocessors, semiconductors, memory, touchscreens), computer security, software, telecommunications and networking, energy, aerospace, automotive, medical devices, and business and finance solutions.
Ross also assists clients with patent portfolio monetization and licensing, including patent portfolio valuation, identifying potential licensees, patent licensing negotiations, and preparing intellectual property license agreements.
Prior to forming Alliance IP, Ross was an intellectual property attorney at Baker Botts, a large multi-national law firm, where he focused on both patent prosecution and litigation of complex, high-stakes patent disputes. Ross draws heavily from his patent litigation experience in order to prepare and prosecute robust patents that can withstand the extensive scrutiny of litigation.
Scott McClelland is a registered patent attorney with extensive experience in the procurement of patents worldwide, having drafted and prosecuted hundreds of US, PCT, and foreign patent applications. He also has experience with patent disputes, having defended clients in patent infringement lawsuits and other types of patent assertions. Scott draws on this experience to secure robust patents that avoid many potential pitfalls seen in these arenas. Scott has also assisted clients with patentability investigations, freedom-to-operate analyses, and licensing issues.