April 2020

Chambers and Partners USA 2020 rankings were recently released. This researched ranking independently identifies and ranks the most outstanding law firms and lawyers globally, whether they are multi-national or boutique.

Once again, their research for “Intellectual Property – Oregon” has listed Partner Anna McCoy for one of their Ranked Lawyers for her handling of various trademark and patent issues, such as licensing, prosecution and design. Anna is known internationally for her trademark practice which takes a holistic approach to intellectual property portfolio development.

Yesterday, McCoy Russell celebrated Administrative Professionals Day with a message to all staff thanking them for their continued support and hard work. Firm partners, Anna and John, recognized the demands on our teams to sustain our high quality filing and prosecution that have helped the firm rise to the top in terms of objective quality and other performance criteria.

We are grateful to have a supportive and hard-working community here at McCoy Russell.

This year’s earth day theme is a call for climate action, reminding us that climate change represents one of the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable.

Our client 1^st Step Solar, with their project the “Allbrand Solar Monitor”, have made it to the semi-finals of the American-Made Solar Prize Competition. This challenge requires competitors to make progress on a condensed timeline to identify a critical challenge related to American solar manufacturing, create a concept, and secure a partner to test a prototype.

McCoy Russell continues to support companies that are developing and integrating clean technology products, systems, and services. Improving upon the novel wind, solar, electric automotive options, and renewal technologies will help shape the future of climate change.

While the firm navigates this stressful time, we’ve been taking measures to ensure the well-being of our teams. Not only by continuing our operations from remote locations, but also by providing access to resources to support mental health. We understand the importance of taking care of ourselves to continue providing clients our high caliber work and the demands of this high pressure field. McCoy Russell is adapting our well-being initiatives to the times and looking for new ways to manage stress and help improve overall firm well-being.

McCoy Russell has received yet another complete appeal reversal in the area of internal combustion engines. Our team led by John Russell, proved that even after more than a hundred years, there can still be ground-breaking innovation in engine design.  John was able to successfully defend claims a new engine configuration that had received praise across the automotive industry. The PTAB reversed all rejections on Appeal 2018-004160.

While we cannot be together physically, McCoy Russell came together to celebrate the firm’s anniversary virtually. The impact of this situation is difficult to navigate, and while we are in trying times, we are certainly in this together.

We all cheered on our operations continuing uninterrupted, enabled by our IT, our technological infrastructure and our dedicated team.  We remain available to clients, via phone, email and video conference.

McCoy Russell’s practice strength in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning continues to expand. Having significant success with patents issued relating to artificial intelligence (A/I), machine learning (M/L), and neural networks, the firm looks to expanding this area of focus by looking for new talent and opportunities.

McCoy Russell is currently the #2 Intellectual Property Firm for Alice allowance rates and #3 firm for Alice overcome rates. Many cases relating to A/I and M/L typically receive Alice rejections due to the alleged abstract nature of these novel innovations. McCoy Russell’s high Alice allowance and overcome rates are a testament to the firm’s technical focus and strategic effectiveness.

McCoy Russell’s AI and machine learning work extends across a number of broad industries.  Drafting and coordinated strategies have been developed for coverage of improvements related to deep learning, neural networks, convolutional networks, network training, adaptive learning, and mapping across a range of fields including image processing, speech processing, automatic controls, diagnostics, machine vision, robotics, virtual reality, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), medical data analysis, and other big data analytics, including insurance claim analysis.