Counsel registry

Lee Sullivan Shea & Smith

2 case appearances — 1 as plaintiff counsel · 1 as defendant counsel.

Generating firm summary with web-search grounding — usually 30-60s. Don’t leave this page.

Attorneys

Further reading

KSR International v. Teleflex (2007)
Pre-KSR, an obviousness rejection required explicit teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art. Post-KSR, common sense, design needs, and predictable variations all do the work — and most patents don't survive.
Patent reviews: IPR, PGR, and reexamination
Suing in district court to invalidate a patent costs $3-5M and takes years. The USPTO's post-grant review system does it for $200-500k and 12-18 months. For a defendant facing a weak patent, the choice is usually obvious.
Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International (2014)
Bolting 'on a computer' onto an abstract business process doesn't make it patentable. Most software and business-method patents that look like 'doing X on a computer' don't survive when seriously challenged under Alice.
Finding prior art with free tools: Google Patents, Lens, Espacenet, and more
A serious paid prior-art search costs $5,000 to $20,000. The first 80% of what you'd find is sitting behind free tools — if you know how to drive them.
Joint defense groups: economics, formation, and the privilege framework
An NPE sues twenty defendants on one patent. Solo, each faces $3-5M in defense costs. Pooled into a joint defense group, the per-defendant number drops to $200-500K. The economics only work if the privilege framework is set up correctly.