Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., a national intellectual property law firm that procures, enforces and litigates intellectual property rights throughout the world, welcomes seven new associates to its Chicago and Washington, D.C., offices.
John Harris Curry, Washington, D.C., focuses his practice on post-grant matters, including inter partes reviews, covered business method reviews and post-grant reviews, and on the preparation and prosecution of patent applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He also has experience in large complex multi-party litigation matters at both the district court and appellate court levels.
Prior to joining Banner & Witcoff, John worked as an attorney at a Washington, D.C.-based patent law firm. He also has experience as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where he examined applications in the area of display device technology.
He earned his B.S. in electrical engineering and his J.D. from The George Washington University.
Kevin Dam, Chicago, focuses his practice on patent prosecution, and patent and trademark litigation.
Prior to joining Banner & Witcoff, Kevin worked on the legal team at Northwestern University’s Innovation and New Ventures Office as an intern, Invention Specialist and ultimately as an Intellectual Property Associate.
He earned his B.A. in biology with a concentration in biochemistry from Northwestern University. He earned his J.D., cum laude, from Washington University School of Law. While in law school, he served as a full-time judicial intern for the Honorable Richard Linn of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Grant Hodgson, Washington, D.C., focuses his practice on the preparation and prosecution of patent applications. His technical experience includes a variety of areas, including computer security, networking, natural language processing and machine learning.
He earned his B.S. in applied statistics & analytics and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University. He will also soon complete his M.S. in computer science at Brigham Young University.
Bowen Li, Washington, D.C., focuses his practice on patent prosecution across a spectrum of technologies, including cable televisions, computer networks, telecommunication devices and semiconductor devices.
Prior to joining Banner & Witcoff, Bowen worked at an intellectual property law firm for two years, assisting attorneys with patent prosecution, and patentability and invalidity searches.
He earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where he graduated as an Outstanding Graduate. He earned his J.D., with high honors, from The George Washington University Law School. While in law school, he worked as a judicial intern at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Court of Appeals of Maryland.
Lyssa Morris, Washington, D.C., focuses her practice on the preparation and prosecution of U.S. patent applications, primarily in the area of the computer and software arts, including end user software, mobile/Internet technologies, consumer products, Internet of Things and sensor devices.
Prior to joining Banner & Witcoff, Lyssa worked as a technology specialist/patent agent at a New York law firm. Before attending law school, she worked as a database developer and a business analyst at Alliance Bernstein, Cambridge Technology Partners and Oracle Corporation.
She earned her B.S. in computer science from Spelman College and her M.S. in computer science from Columbia University. She earned her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
Heather R. Smith-Carra, Washington, D.C., focuses her practice on trademark, domain name, and copyright prosecution and counseling matters.
Prior to becoming an associate at Banner & Witcoff, Heather held multiple roles at the firm, including patent and trademark prosecution paralegal and trademark law clerk. In addition, Heather worked as a research intern for the IP video game blog PatentArcade.com, where she researched, analyzed and summarized intellectual property litigations focusing on patent, trademark and copyright law.
She earned her B.A. in international studies from American University and her J.D. from The George Washington University.
Michelle Zhang, Washington, D.C., focuses her practice on the preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications, patent portfolio development and post-grant proceedings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. She is also experienced in rendering legal opinions in relationship to patentability, validity and freedom to operate, and has handled inter partes review and covered business method review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Prior to joining Banner & Witcoff, Michelle was an associate in a large international law firm and focused on patent counseling and prosecution, patent litigation, trademark enforcement and domain name protections. Prior to her legal practice, she gained extensive industrial experience developing software for a major pharmaceutical company and managing financial systems for a global investment bank.
She earned her B.S. in medicine from Shandong University and her M.S. in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She earned her J.D., patent track, from George Mason University.
Posted: November 27, 2017
