Nathan Kelley

Nathan Kelley assists clients with patent appeals, inter partes reviews at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and related USPTO work. He has argued more than forty Federal Circuit appeals, including several en banc cases, while overseeing the defense of hundreds of decisions of the PTAB and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) before the Federal Circuit.

Nate handles intellectual property matters involving a full range of technologies, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, software, and computer networking, and an equally broad range of legal issues. Beyond litigation (both in the federal courts and at the PTAB), Nate's experience includes helping develop USPTO rules and guidelines, shaping federal policy on various IP matters, and internally counseling the USPTO on its implementation of trial proceedings under the America Invents Act.

As its solicitor and deputy general counsel for IP law, Nate managed all IP litigation for the USPTO and participated in many of the most significant patent and trademark cases in recent years. Nate also acted as the agency's chief administrative patent judge, leading the PTAB during a critical period as it was coming up to speed with its jurisdiction over inter partes reviews under the AIA. Before his time in the solicitor's office and PTAB, Nate worked for six years at the Federal Circuit, including as a judicial law clerk. His career in IP law began more than 25 years ago as a patent examiner in the semiconductor field.