Alisa S. Abbott

She assists clients at each level of design patent prosecution, ensuring thorough and efficient claim protection. With over a decade of experience prosecuting hundreds of design patents for Fortune 100 companies, Alisa draws on a wealth of experience balancing careful portfolio management with innovative strategies to ensure comprehensive protection for clients. She has a unique familiarity with international design registration strategies as well, securing protection for clients worldwide. Alisa's practice also includes post-allowance support, such as client advocacy and dispute resolution when infringement or enforcement needs may arise.

Alisa has extensive experience advising on claims regarding apparel, footwear, athletic accessories and equipment, portable and wearable electronic devices, home entertainment devices and systems, home appliances, construction materials, medical equipment, packaging, and static, animated and transitional graphical user interfaces and icons.

Prior to joining Banner Witcoff, she practiced at a boutique intellectual property firm advising one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers on both foreign and domestic design procurement and prosecution.

Outside of her legal practice, Alisa serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law. She collaborates with fellow Banner Witcoff attorneys to teach a seminar on pre-trial intellectual property litigation. 

She has written articles addressing issues related to design patent rights, including co-authoring an article entitled, "Clarifying Multi-Embodiment And Single-View Design Filings" in Law360, and a chapter entitled, “Protecting and Enforcing Design Rights in the United States,” for World Trademark Review‘s Designs: A Global Guide in 2018 and 2019. She also penned the U.S. chapter for Lexology Getting the Deal Through: Designs 2021 and served as a contributing author for Lexology Panoramic: Designs (USA) and Lexology Panoramic: Designs Global Overview. Additionally, she contributed to several editions of Bloomberg BNA's Drafting Patents for Litigation and Licensing.

Alisa graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts degree, double majoring in American Studies and Religious Studies. During her undergraduate career, she was an executive board member of the largest student-service organization on grounds.

She earned her J.D. from Washington & Lee University, focusing most of her practicum-based studies on intellectual property coursework. Throughout law school, Alisa was actively involved in community service. As a third-year law student, she served as president of the Women’s Law Student Organization, as well as a court appointed special advocate. Upon graduation, Alisa received recognition for exceptional law-related service.