Kathleen Fitterling

Kathleen Fitterling — practice summary

Specialty / focus areas. Fitterling works in patent prosecution and patent litigation support at Erise IP, and her tracked matters center on cloud-security software: the Orca Security v. Wiz dispute, both the Delaware district court action and the parallel IPR series, involves cloud security posture management and network-entity graph technologies (Tech Center 2400). Her prosecution docket, drawn from USPTO practice records, spans a wider technical range — medical devices and diabetes care (Ascensia), spinal implants (Spinal Simplicity), utility equipment (Altec), body-worn cameras (Digital Ally), infant carriers (Ergo Baby), and defense/aerospace research (Applied Research Associates, Honeywell Federal Manufacturing) — consistent with an engineering-generalist docket rather than a single standards-based specialty such as Wi-Fi/SEP or pharma. She holds a B.S. in system science and engineering and worked in healthcare software before becoming a patent agent (Erise IP firm profile).

Side preference. All three tracked appearances are plaintiff-side and all are in the same Orca Security v. Wiz dispute, with Erise IP acting for Orca — a competitor-vs-competitor cloud-security case, not NPE/PAE assertion work. That sample is too narrow to support a broader claim about her defense/plaintiff mix; the larger USPTO-derived docket shows prosecution work for a mix of operating companies. Where she appears in PTAB filings, she has appeared on both petitioner and patent-owner-adjacent teams over time (e.g., Sprint, Sandvine, and Ubisoft petitioners; Ergo Baby matters), so the record does not support describing her as aligned to one side.

Firm context and role. She has been at Erise IP (Overland Park, KS) since the firm's 2012 founding, per Erise's own profile, where she is described as a senior patent agent / senior technical advisor. Third-party databases (PlainSite) also list earlier affiliations with Shook Hardy & Bacon and Husch Blackwell — the firms from which Erise's founders came — though I could not verify those affiliations from a primary source. Note an important qualification on the "attorney" framing: publicly available records identify her as a registered patent agent (USPTO Reg. No. 62,950), appearing in PTAB papers as backup counsel and signing as "Counsel for Petitioners," rather than as a state-bar-admitted attorney. Some databases list her as counsel, but I found no record of a state bar license; this should be confirmed before she is described as an attorney in any filing or bio.

Notable matters and outcomes. The tracked dispute resolved against her client's asserted patents: the PTAB issued final written decisions on December 8, 2025 in IPR2024-00863/-00864/-00865 holding all claims of Orca's U.S. Patents 11,663,031, 11,664,032, and 11,693,685 unpatentable, and the District of Delaware case was dismissed with prejudice by stipulation in January 2026, each side bearing its own fees. On the offensive side, Orca's IPRs against Wiz patents (IPR2025-01083 through -01087, in which Fitterling is named on the petitioner power of attorney) ended with institution denied on two patents (11,722,554 and 12,001,549) and the remaining proceedings terminated after settlement in January 2026. No verdicts or Federal Circuit results attributable to her individually were found.

PTAB / PTAB experience. Yes — she appears repeatedly in IPR papers as backup counsel dating back to at least 2015–2018 (Sprint Spectrum, Sandvine, Ubisoft, Ergo Baby) and on the 2025 Orca petitions, primarily in a technical/backup capacity rather than as lead counsel.

Bar / education. Registered to practice before the USPTO (Reg. No. 62,950); B.S. in system science and engineering (as reported by Erise). No state bar admission or law degree was found in reliable sources.