Banner & Witcoff welcomes associates Daniel Douglas and Nigel Fontenot to its Washington, D.C., office and Pei Wu to its Boston office.
Mr. Douglas focuses his practice on patent prosecution in the fields of computer software, user interfaces, business methods, algorithms, wearable devices, networks and signal processing, voice recognition, artificial intelligence, and computational linguistics. He has also aided defense teams for clients in patent infringement and copyright infringement litigation, and has additional experience with trademark counseling and post-grant analysis of patents.
Prior to joining Banner & Witcoff, Mr. Douglas started a business developing and licensing administrative software for universities to identify efficient class offerings in order to help all students satisfy course prerequisites and graduation requirements. He also worked for two years in the web development industry before attending law school.
He received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center; and his A.B. in computer science from Princeton University, with an independent research focus and multiple papers on computational linguistics.
Mr. Fontenot focuses his practice on a range of technical areas, including computer software, credit analysis systems, securities and investments, databases, solar power systems, wind turbine systems, natural language processing, activity trackers, telecommunications, wireless systems, real-estate market trends, mobile devices, Internet and Domain Name System (DNS), webpage security, data processing and refining, memory storage devices, energy efficiency power systems, mail courier systems, security and authentication, business methods, cable television and networks, and mechanical devices.
Prior to joining Banner & Witcoff, he worked as a student associate at an international intellectual property law firm in Washington, D.C. Prior to law school, he worked as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, examining medical device and medical imaging patent applications.
He earned his J.D., with honors, from George Washington University Law School; and his B.S. degree in biomedical engineering with a minor in electrical engineering, cum laude, from Texas A&M University.
Ms. Wu focuses her practice on patent prosecution and patent portfolio development in the fields of biotechnology, molecular diagnostics, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. She has extensive experience in preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications relating to genes, proteins, enzymes, among other areas. She counsels clients ranging from private and public companies to non-profit academic institutions and hospitals on strategic IP portfolio development that aligns with their business objectives.
She brings more than seven years of law firm and in-house experience as a patent agent and patent attorney to Banner & Witcoff. She also has more than 10 years of biological research experience as an instructor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a scientist at Harvard Medical School, and a postdoctoral research associate and research assistant professor at University of Florida.
She earned her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School and her graduate certificate in management from Harvard Extension School. She received her Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from the University of Florida and her B.S. in biochemistry from Wuhan University in China.
Posted: January 13, 2016
