Kirk A. Sigmon He/Him/His
Attorney
Washington, DC
ksigmon@bannerwitcoff.com Main: 202.824.3000 Fax: 202.824.3001
Kirk helps companies around the world tackle complex intellectual property challenges, from high-stakes patent prosecution and litigation to strategic portfolio development, cross-border licensing, and maximizing IP value.
Kirk began his legal career in Tokyo, and now regularly advises on U.S., Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and European IP matters. Kirk’s practice involves a wide range of technologies, from cutting-edge artificial intelligence models and self-driving cars to video games, fashion, and children’s toys. For example, Kirk has worked on major patent prosecution and enforcement disputes involving networking and cybersecurity, cellular communications, virtual reality, self-driving cars, biotechnology, medical devices, military weapons systems, cryptocurrency, aerospace flight systems, video encoding, oil and gas engineering, optoelectronics, data storage, and more. Kirk speaks Japanese and is actively studying Korean.
In addition to his work at Banner, Kirk is part of a select graduate cohort at Dartmouth, where his research focuses on artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine vision, and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Kirk is also a University of Hong Kong-certified FinTech professional, an IBM-certified Machine Learning Professional, a Google-certified cybersecurity professional, and a Government Blockchain Association-certified Blockchain Legal Specialist. A former Thomas Edison Fellow at George Mason University, Kirk’s recent scholarly output includes a law review article on video game program code decompilations and copyright, a practitioner guide on prosecuting artificial intelligence patent applications, various book chapters on video game intellectual property protection, and a legal education course on trademark and patent prosecution ethics. Kirk is also a frequent contributor to the firm’s blog Patent Arcade, where he writes on video game intellectual property law.
Before joining Banner, in addition to his intellectual property practice, Kirk worked with clients in response to Department of Justice, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations that involved complex technical issues.
Kirk devotes significant time to pro bono work. He has successfully represented a Guantanamo Bay detainee in military proceedings and victims of sexual violence in U-Visa proceedings. He also regularly prepares testamentary documents for indigent senior citizens and has represented numerous adults and minors in protective order and immigration proceedings.
Outside of the law, Kirk is a competitive ballroom dancer and the head of a charity events organization in Washington, D.C., where he seeks to provide fundraising opportunities to local nonprofits and causes.
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Wake Forest University
2010, B.A.
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Cornell Law School
2013, J.D.
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Temple University
2017, M.B.A.
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Arizona State University
2018, B.S., Electrical Engineering
Japanese
- Conversational
Bar Admissions
- 2013, District of Columbia
- 2013, Virginia
Court Admissions
- District of Columbia Court of Appeals
- Superior Court of the District of Columbia
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
