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Nathan Kelley is one of the country’s leading intellectual property lawyers, having served for more than a decade at the top levels of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, most recently as Solicitor and Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property Law. In that capacity, Nate managed all IP litigation for the USPTO and participated in many of the most significant patent and trademark cases in recent years, including Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC; Matal v. Tam; Aqua Products, Inc. v. Matal; In re Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC; Samsung Electronics Co. v. Apple, Inc.; Life Techs. Corp. v. Promega Corp.; Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l; Nautilus, Inc. v. Biosig Instruments, Inc.; Teva Pharm. USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc.; and B&B Hardware v. Hargis Indus., Inc.
At the USPTO, Nate also acted as the USPTO’s Chief Administrative Patent Judge, leading the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) during a critical period as it was coming up to speed with its jurisdiction over inter partes reviews under the America Invents Act (AIA). Before his time in the Solicitor’s Office and PTAB, Nate worked for six years at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, first as a member of its permanent legal staff and then as a law clerk for Circuit Judge Randall Rader. His career in intellectual property law began over 25 years ago as a patent examiner in the semiconductor field.
In his counsel to clients, Nate offers his deep experience managing high-profile patent litigation appeals, inter partes reviews at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and related USPTO work. He has personally argued dozens of 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. Since coming to Perkins Coie in 2018, Nate has built on that experience, handling appeals involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices, communications, cloud-based storage, and statutory construction issues under the AIA. 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 the implementation of the America Invents Act. Nate has built on that work as well since joining Perkins Coie, counseling clients on USPTO policies and procedures, as well as complex litigation strategies involving co-pending PTAB and district court litigation.
Nate possesses an exceptional command of intellectual property and administrative law and provides a strategic, practical approach to counseling clients on their intellectual property concerns. He is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences on various intellectual property topics, drawing on his years of experience navigating the highest levels at the USPTO and other federal agencies.
