Susan C. Nelson

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Susan C. Nelson — patent litigation overview

Focus areas. Nelson is a general complex-civil-litigation lawyer in Spokane, Washington, not a dedicated patent litigator. Her practice spans employment, civil rights, wrongful death, real property, and intellectual property — with IP work concentrated in trademark infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and unfair competition rather than patents. Her only tracked patent case involves mechanical firearms technology (forced-reset trigger mechanisms), so there is no demonstrated pattern of patent work in Wi-Fi, software, or pharma (one undated client review on a lawyer directory describes a patent/trademark suit against a larger pharmaceutical company, but that account is client-authored and cannot be independently verified). Her law-school concentration was in patent, software, copyright and technology law.

Side preference. 1 of 1 tracked appearances is plaintiff-side (1 plaintiff, 0 defendant), in a role the docket characterizes as local counsel. That is a thin sample — the single data point reflects participation in a patent-owner's enforcement campaign rather than an established NPE/PAE or operating-company defense practice. There is no tracked record of defending patent infringement claims.

Firm context. The tracked matter is attributed to Dunn & Black P.S. (Spokane; formerly Dunn, Black & Roberts, P.S.), where Nelson practiced from roughly 2008 and served as a principal/partner. As of March 25, 2026 she moved to Kutak Rock LLP's Spokane office as of counsel in the Litigation practice group. Kutak Rock's announcement describes her practice as employment, business disputes, intellectual property, and wills and trusts — consistent with a general commercial litigation profile rather than a patent specialty.

Notable matter. Rare Breed Triggers Inc. et al. v. Superior Firearms of Texas — docketed as ABC IP, LLC et al. v. Superior Firearms of Texas, No. 2:26-cv-00058 (E.D. Tex., Judge Gilstrap), filed January 22, 2026 — asserts FRT trigger patents ('247 and '784) against a reseller. It is one of a wave of 100-plus suits by Rare Breed/ABC IP against makers and resellers of forced-reset triggers, consolidated as MDL No. 3176 in the Eastern District of Texas; lead counsel on the campaign is Fish & Richardson. Nelson's role is local counsel, so the substantive patent advocacy (claim construction, preliminary injunction, MDL briefing) has been led by other firms. Publicly verifiable outcomes in the campaign include a preliminary injunction in ABC IP v. Hoffman, denials of preliminary injunctive relief and expedited discovery in the Peak Tactical/Partisan line (D. Wyo.), and a Federal Circuit appeal noticed in March 2026 — none of which is attributable to Nelson individually.

PTAB / IPR. No IPR, PGR, or other PTAB proceedings could be verified for this attorney, and nothing in her published practice description indicates PTAB experience. No inventorship, reexamination, or Federal Circuit patent-argument work is documented in her name.

Bar and education. J.D., Case Western Reserve University School of Law (2004; Certificate of Concentration in Law, Technology & the Arts); B.A., Whitman College. Admitted in Washington (2004) and Oregon (2007), the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Washington and the District of Oregon, the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. She clerked for Judge K.J. Montgomery in Cleveland and has been recognized in Super Lawyers (Civil Litigation, 2023–2026) and as a Rising Star (2013–2014).

Note on disambiguation: a different Susan Nelson practices immigration law in Waco, Texas (Baylor Law); the profile above concerns the Spokane litigator admitted in Washington and Oregon.