Counsel registry

Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan

1 case appearance — 0 as plaintiff counsel · 1 as defendant counsel.

Attorneys

Further reading

Prior-art research, old way vs new way — a side-by-side comparison
Defense is expensive because reading thousands of pages of patents takes time. AI doesn't change that for the lawyer's strategic work — but the time-on-pages part collapses by orders of magnitude.
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.
Prior art and § 102 novelty
Most issued patents have anticipating prior art that the examiner missed. The work is finding it and proving the date.
What is a patent troll?
Patent trolls are companies whose business is suing other companies. They make nothing, sell nothing, and add nothing — they collect old patents and use them to extract settlements from companies that actually do things.
AI prior art search tools: a 2026 buyer's guide for defendants
AI doesn't replace a patent attorney's judgment. It does replace the search step that used to cost $20,000 and take three weeks.