Overview

Katie Apsens is a registered patent attorney who prepares and prosecutes software and mechanical engineering patent applications in a wide variety of disciplines. She advises clients, including major multinational corporations and start-ups, on patent portfolio construction and all levels of litigation strategy, including actions before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and in federal court proceedings. Katie has managed patent prosecution and correspondence in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions, including the European Patent Office and the China National Intellectual Property Administration. She also conducts prior art searches and provides patentability analyses in connection with a comprehensive review of technical and scientific literature.

Prior to joining the firm, Katie was a patent prosecution attorney at a California-based intellectual property law firm in its San Jose office where she prepared and prosecuted patent applications, including cloud infrastructure, software applications, database technology, machine learning, network security, industrial systems, and medical device patents.

While attending law school, Katie served as a legal extern at the USPTO in Alexandria, Virginia where she reviewed and analyzed case files for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to identify factual and legal issues related to the PTAB and federal court proceedings. She was a legal assistant at a law firm in San Francisco, California that provides general counsel services to startups and established companies in biotechnology and other fields. Katie served as a student associate in the Startup Legal Garage: Patent Module, a selective, yearlong program that combines doctrinal classes with fieldwork, where she conducted a freedom-to-operate analysis for two emerging biotechnology companies under attorney supervision. She also served as an academic research assistant for Professor Robin Feldman and as Junior Editor and then Editor-in-Chief of the Science and Technology Law Journal.

Prior to launching her legal career, Katie worked as an Intellectual Property Development Project Engineer at a specialized intellectual property services & technology development company in Bainbridge, Washington, a Technical Sales Engineer at a leading designer and manufacturer of nanopositioning piezo stages in Middleton, Wisconsin, and a Mechanical Engineer at a manufacturer of plumbing and heating valves in Prairie Du Sac, Wisconsin.

Katie is co-inventor of a patent titled “Systems and methods for a vaporization device and product usage control and documentation” (US20150136158A1, published on May 21, 2015).

Katie has basic knowledge of Japanese.

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Education

University of California, Hastings College of the Law J.D., Intellectual Property Law Concentration (2021) CALI Excellence for the Future Award

Washington State University B.S., Mechanical Engineering (2014)

Admissions

California (2021)

Court Admissions

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (2022)

Professional & Community Activities

Queen’s Bench Association, Member

San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association (SFIPLA), Member

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