March 2022

Congratulations to the innovative companies recognized Lawyer’s Monthly Top 100 Global Innovators 2022, a third-party report that recognizes the organizations at the very pinnacle of the innovation ecosystem. McCoy Russell LLP is a nationally ranked, boutique intellectual property firm focused on portfolio development that is proud to help manage and develop the intellectual property portfolios for numerous organizations recognized as innovation leaders.

While McCoy Russell is recognized for our quality patent drafting and prosecution strategies, our firm’s model also drives other aspects of portfolio development beyond patent drafting and prosecution, including searching, landscape reviews, and targeted brainstorming. Our clients range from solo entrepreneurs to government institutions and multinational corporations. We also represent both emerging companies as well as companies with brands over 100 years old. These clients look to our firm’s expertise for branding and patent portfolio filings, strategy recommendations and portfolio development worldwide.

McCoy Russell’s founding Partner Anna McCoy has been recognized by World Trademark Review (WTR) in WTR 1000: The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals. The resource identifies the leading trademark practitioners and firms from around the globe. Her inclusion into this resource solidifies the approach we take to Well-known mark protection, trade dress and product configuration, and world-wide portfolio development and management, the cornerstones of McCoy Russell’s branding practice.

As a responsive and progressive portfolio development firm, we have a focused practice on branding development for its clients. McCoy Russell has established itself as a partner with its clients in developing strong branding rights serving start-ups to iconic brands.

The PTAB Bar Association’s recent Report and Challenge: Women at the PTAB: Post-Grant Proceedings sheds light on the challenge for women attorneys appearing in PTAB proceedings since 2019.  While 20-30% of registered patent attorneys are women, only 12% are actually making PTAB appearances in 2021.

Women practicing patent law face numerous challenges when trying to develop a successful practice. Women-owned patent firms are at a double disadvantage – not only do their women attorneys face the constant challenge of proving their technical abilities, but also in having their firms hired in the competitive legal industry.

As a women-owned intellectual property firm, McCoy Russell has had to overcome numerous biases. Despite objective quality rankings including Top Patent Firm rankings in multiple Technology Centers at the USPTO for two years in a row (something no other patent firm in the country has achieved), some potential clients still do not look at our firm in the same was as a traditional patent firm dominated by male partners.

McCoy Russell actively examines and challenges the gender and minority gap within intellectual property law nationally, and locally in the West Coast community. We are proud to support our female-identifying attorneys in representing our clients before the PTAB, including in two recent PTAB cases where our attorneys successfully leveraged their work to obtain valuable outcomes for our clients.

McCoy Russell also works to provide education on organizational and individual remedies that both drive innovation and profitability and supports women and minorities.  We hope to see women increase their participation before the PTAB.

As a Women-Owned Small Business, McCoy Russell is happy to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day. This year’s theme, Break the Bias, reminds us why we stand proud in our firms approach to intellectual property law and why we take an active role within the Portland-area start up community in providing intellectual property education and strategy.

To celebrate, we produced and shared a short presentation about how bias affects the practice of intellectual property law. We looked at the gender and minority gap in inventorship, patent prosecution, and VC funding for women founders nationally and here in Portland. We shared some thoughts for remedies at the organizational level and individual level, focusing on culture, support, and self-identity.

At McCoy Russell LLP, we know that innovation thrives when diverse approaches and philosophies are nurtured in the workplace. To that end, we continue to hold ourselves to that commitment. The individual contributions of our staff shapes the way we practice intellectual property law. We thank them for sharing their knowledge, dedication, and effort. Their commitment and energy each one of them has given makes McCoy Russell what it is.

McCoy Russell has long been recognized as a women-owned firm, including at the local level through the Business Oregon Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID). In addition, the firm is pleased to announce the additional recognition by the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce (USWCC) as a certified Women-Owned Small Business.

The U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce is an authorized 3rd party certifier for the federal WOSB and EDWOSB programs.

At McCoy Russell LLP, we know that innovation thrives when diverse approaches and philosophies are nurtured in the workplace. To that end, we are dedicated to maintaining a staff comprised of employees from a variety of educational, cultural and employment backgrounds. Our commitment to inclusion extends to the top levels of our management structure. A majority of our senior staff and supervisors are women, as well as half of our Technology Specialist staff.

McCoy Russell continues to see success in our appeal practice and has received yet another full reversal decision on appeal in the area of Chemical and Materials Engineering. Our team led by John Russell and Janina Malone provided well crafted, effective, and clear arguments before the Patent and Trademark Appeal Board (PTAB), disputing the decision to reject claims due to obviousness. The invention relates to a method to detect light absorbing or scattering particles at a binding surface of a carrier.

Upon consideration of our appeal and reply briefs, the PTAB reversed the examiner’s decision to reject claims as unpatentable. Read the full Appeal 2021-000244.