Fernandez & Associates (IPLOFT.COM)

High-Technology lawyers specializing in early-stage electronics, communications, software, and biotechnology companies.

The Firm specializes in High-Technology and Intellectual Property Rights, particularly focusing on U.S. Patent Protection of advanced electronic circuits, semiconductor chip designs, network communications, biomedical devices, bioinformatic systems (analytical and data storage), and complex software systems.

The team

New Members

Inna Shestul, specializing in international tax and related intellectual property matters, joins the firm, formerly associated with Blakeley Sokoloff Taylor & Zaffman. Shestul has an LLM in Taxation from Boston University School of Law, a JD from Tulane Law School, a BS in Accounting from Old Dominion University, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Sevastopol Polytechnical University in Russia.

Edineia Shultz, specializing in international pharmaceutical intellectual property matters, joins the firm, formerly practicing in-house with Aventis Pharmaceutical. Shultz received her Law Degree from Unib University in Brazil.

Since we published the last volume of the newsletter, the firm has continued its growth. Several new members with diverse backgrounds have joined as regular employees, and with the arrival of the summer season, the firm has expanded its internship program to include some of the brightest minds from various prestigious universities. Along with the new arrivals, we are happy to announce that Irene Hu, a Partner in the firm on sabbatical at the time the previous volume was published, has since returned to the firm.

It is with the greatest pleasure that we welcome our new regular employee Keala Chan. Ms. Chan is a senior studying at the University of California, Berkeley; she's currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Mathematics and a minor in English. Ms. Chan has held Computer Science research positions with well-established organizations such as George Mason University and the University of California, Berkeley.

A successful experimental Internship Program last summer propelled an expanded program this summer with a group of five interns: Anthony Ko an electrical engineering major at the University of Southern California; Jack H. Wang, an electrical engineering major at Stanford University; Sarah Joan Lai, an electrical engineering major at the University of California at Los Angeles; Brian D. Worth, a Mathematical and Computational Science major at Stanford University; and Ravi Yang Sarin, an electrical engineering major at Stanford University.

Partnership Announcement

Peter C. Su was elected to a partnership with Fernandez & Associates LLP, a Menlo Park-based firm specializing in patent strategies and complex patent prosecution. Mr. Su's practice focuses on strategic patent consulting for start-ups, particularly in the semiconductor, networking, and optics technology arenas. Mr. Su received his J.D. in 1994 from Syracuse University and has practiced patent law at the law firms of Fenwick & West and Skjerven, Morrill, McPherson. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from San Diego State and San Jose State, respectively, and worked at Advanced Micro Devices as a design and process engineer.

Mr. Su is a registered patent attorney with the US Patent and Trademark Office and has co-published several industrial articles on patent strategies such as "Patenting Optical Inventions" and "International Rights Protection for Design Data and Tools."

New Practice

Fernandez & Associates is proud to announce its new biotechnology practice. The firm is now prepared to assist companies specializing in many different fields and applications of biotechnology, including genomics, gene therapy, proteomics, and bioinformatics. In addition to prosecuting biotech-related patents, Fernandez and Associates provides intellectual property strategy for companies in the biotechnology space.

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