Terry Tullis > Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP > Irvine, United States > Lawyer Profile

Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP
2040 MAIN STREET
14TH FLOOR
IRVINE, CA 92614
CALIFORNIA
United States
Terry Tullis photo

Position

Partner

Career

With more than a decade of experience in domestic and international strategic intellectual property portfolio management, Terry Tullis advises on patent, trademark, and copyright prosecution, enforcement, and licensing. Terry truly thrives in the continuous cycle of the evolution of the law, business, and rapid technological innovation.

Terry’s clients include individuals and large and small businesses involved in a wide range of technologies, including medical device, nanotechnology, and mechanical arts. Terry is known for his consistently good judgment and positive outcomes. Clients and colleagues alike appreciate Terry’s personal commitment to responsiveness and availability, which is reinforced by his proven skill in addressing both the simple and complicated problems of doing business today.

Fully invested in dispute resolution in the U.S. and abroad, Terry works tirelessly not only to ensure his clients obtain and leverage their valuable IP, but also protect their brand and innovated creativity around the world, particularly in Europe, China, and South Korea. He has provided both offensive and defensive advocacy in district court, before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), in interferences and inter partes review (IPRs), on appeal to the Federal Circuit, as well as in the prosecution, enforcement, and defense of client assets overseas.

Notably, Terry has worked extensively with orthopedic, spinal, cardiovascular, neurovascular, gynecological, and aesthetic technologies. He has been involved in the IP strategy, acquisitions, and investment rounds of Ulthera, Inc. (funding rounds and acquisition by Merz Pharmaceuticals), Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (funding rounds and IPO), Endius, Inc. (acquired by Zimmer Holdings, Inc.), ev3 Inc. and ev3 Neurovascular (acquired by Covidien). Other medical device clients have included Sonoma Orthopedic Products, Inc., TranS1, Inc., and NovaLign Orthopaedics, Inc.

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Intellectual property > Patents: prosecution (including re-examination and post-grant proceedings)

Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP houses a patent prosecution team with impressive expertise across the remit of work which is highly regarded for its ‘in-depth expertise and global experience’. At the helm of the practice are medical device specialists Salima Merani who is noted by clients as being ‘simply wonderful’ and Sabing Lee who harnesses 25 years’ experience handling the array of patent-related matters; both work from the firm’s Orange County hub. Establishing, managing, protecting and expanding innovative product inventions and related patent portfolios of value in the hundreds of millions of dollars makes up a large part of the team’s workload. Its life sciences, medical devices, biotech, engineering and telecom expertise in particular sees that the team assists clients across industry sectors which range from start-ups to well-established brands. Harnik Shukla at the Irvine hub has a specialism in IPRs and complex prosecution cases, San Diego’s Jason Jardine is noted for his ‘profound strategy insight’ while Maria Stout at the same office ‘invariably has her client’s success at the forefront of her mind’. PTAB matters are also a key focus for the team, with Irvine-based Terry Tullis having particular expertise in such work, as is post-grant work which is the focus of Shannon Lam also based in Irvine. Lori Yamato has departed to AcuLex Law, APC and Jon Gurka has retired.