Womble Bond Dickinson Attorneys Honored as 2019 IP Stars

SILICON VALLEY—Four Womble Bond Dickinson attorneys have been named to Managing Intellectual Property’s 2019 list of IP Stars. The recognized attorneys, representing the firm’s Atlanta, Houston, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park and Silicon Valley offices, are:

• Kean DeCarlo—Patent Star (Georgia); Trademark Star (Georgia)
• Chris Humphrey—Patent Star (North Carolina)
• Lester Vincent—Patent Star (California)
• Jeffrey Whittle—Patent Star (Texas); Trademark Star (Texas).

IP Stars covers over 130 jurisdictions, including the most active for IP protection, exploitation and enforcement. Research is carried out over a six-month period by a team of global researchers based in London, New York and Hong Kong. Each edition of IP Stars is the result of over 5,300 surveys being conducted with IP professionals.

Kean DeCarlo brings his 20+ years of experience in the mechanical, software, database solution and medical technology sectors to his IP and patent clients. DeCarlo focuses his practice on international and domestic patent, trademark and copyright prosecution, as well as IP strategy, licensing and portfolio management. He has been repeatedly included in the IAM Patent 1000 as one of the world’s leading patent practitioners.

Chris Humphrey leads Womble Bond Dickinson’s Patent Prosecution & Litigation Practice Group. He helps clients achieve their business objectives in three main areas: creating and managing an international patent portfolio; analyzing the competitive patent landscape to ensure the business risk associated with commercial activity is manageable; and evaluating third party patent portfolios as part of the acquisition process.

Lester Vincent ’s IP practice includes patent prosecution, transactions, due diligence work, agreements, opinions (including validity, infringement, patentability, right-to-practice (RTP), and freedom-to-operate (FTO) opinions), counseling, offensive and defensive patent issues, licensing, and litigation. He also handles copyright and open source issues. He works with foreign IP firms and foreign clients with respect to domestic and international patent prosecution, including Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) work, and oversees the firm’s international patent department.

Jeffrey Whittle provides over two decades of legal experience to clients in the energy and high tech industries. He advises on strategic and complex technology transactions, licensing, patent protection, portfolio analysis, and other contentious and transactional intellectual property matters including inter partes reexaminations, post-grant reviews, and derivation proceedings, among other disputed cases. Whittle leads Womble Bond Dickinson’s International IP Energy Group and serves as Managing Partner of the firm’s Houston office.