Stites & Harbison Expands Intellectual Property Practice with Addition of New Attorneys and Patent Agents

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Stites & Harbison, PLLC is pleased to announce the addition of three attorneys and three patent agents to the firm’s Intellectual Property & Technology Service Group. All of the individuals join from one of the nation’s largest full-service intellectual property law firms. With the additions, Stites & Harbison will also be establishing a Hartford, Conn., office in the coming weeks.

Grant M. Ehrlich, Ph.D., Kimberly Vines, Ph.D., and Wanli Wu join the firm as Members (Partners). Youngmin Lee, Ph.D., and Helena M. Lovick, Ph.D., join the firm as Patent Agents while Samantha Page, Ph.D., joins as Senior Patent Agent. These additions come on the heels of Sam Miller recently joining the Intellectual Property & Technology Service Group in the firm’s Nashville office. With the new attorneys, the firm now boasts 30 intellectual property practitioners across its footprint.

“We are thrilled to have so many skilled intellectual property practitioners joining our team,” stated Terry L. Wright, Chair of the Intellectual Property & Technology Service Group at Stites & Harbison. “Their impressive backgrounds coupled with their highly specialized knowledge in a wide range of industries will serve our clients well, especially with their vast experience in energy storage systems, polymers, small molecules, and related technologies.”

Ehrlich is a patent attorney focused on patent work and will be based in the firm’s newly established Hartford office once it opens. He focuses on serving technology-based companies in the development and implementation of effective intellectual property strategies. He has drafted and prosecuted patents and has prepared non-infringement, invalidity, and freedom-to-operate opinions in fields spanning batteries, fuel cells, thermoelectrics, electrolysis, metallurgy, nanotechnology, displays, sensors, medical devices, magnetic and magnetocaloric materials, ceramics, water treatment, heating systems, lubricants, detergents, coatings and phosphors. In addition, he has significant licensing experience and has prepared and negotiated domestic and international patent license agreements, technology transfer agreements and material transfer agreements. Prior to joining Stites & Harbison, Ehrlich was Chair of the Energy Storage, Batteries, and Materials Practice at his prior firm. His background includes previous work experience in electrode development and lithium-ion battery technology as well as a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cornell University. He is admitted to practice in Connecticut.

Vines is a patent attorney based in Alexandria. Her expertise spans a wide range of scientific disciplines, including small molecule therapeutics, polymer and materials science, and biotechnology. Her practice involves drafting and prosecuting patent applications in the U.S. and internationally, with a particular focus on areas such as pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, polymeric and pharmaceutical formulations, and materials for organic light-emitting devices. She also provides legal opinions on non-infringement and invalidity matters. Vines holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she synthesized retinoids for breast cancer chemoprevention. Her post-doctoral research included natural product synthesis and antimalarial small molecules. Before transitioning to law, she gained significant experience as a chemist in the Boston area. She is admitted to practice in Alabama.

Wu is a patent attorney with a focus on chemistry and material science related inventions. She will be based in the firm’s newly established Hartford office once it opens. Wu has more than 15 years of experience drafting patent applications and obtaining worldwide patents in the fields of small molecules, medical therapeutics, polymers, oil and gas field fluids and applications, hydrocarbon recovery and treatment, batteries, CO2 capture, cosmetics and specialty chemicals. She has also conducted patentability, product clearance, and patent validity studies and has experience in IP transactions. Prior to becoming a patent attorney, Wu was a research chemist for eight years for two global pharmaceutical companies. During that time, she synthesized novel Hepatitis C drug candidates and was an inventor on several patents and patent applications. She earned her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law and her M.S. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Mississippi. She is admitted to practice in Connecticut and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Page is a Senior Patent Agent based in the firm’s Alexandria office. Her expertise includes the fields of polymers and materials science, specifically on matters related to polymer chemistry, polymer composites, nanotechnology and chemical engineering. She has experience in patent application preparation, as well as both foreign and domestic prosecution. Page works closely with various leading polymer materials companies as well as major research universities, with technologies ranging from monomer synthesis through end-use applications. She earned her Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, focusing on synthetic polymer chemistry. Her doctoral research centered on developing a new synthetic polymer-based platform for biomedical applications, though her time at UMass provided exposure to a variety of polymers tailored for different applications including polymer/nanoparticle composites, polymer assembly and polymers for electronic applications.

Lee is a Patent Agent based in the firm’s Alexandria office. Her practice primarily focuses on nanochemistry and renewable energy systems such as batteries and fuel cells. She also has analytics experience in the areas of polymer chemistry, advanced materials, chemical and mechanical engineering, biotechnology, food and beverage, telecommunications, optics, consumer goods, medical devices, electronics, IoT and artificial intelligence. Lee earned her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Brown University. Her background also includes postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) focused on nanocatalysts for energy storage and conversion systems. Lee also has technology transfer and licensing experience at a bio startup. She is fluent in Korean.

Lovick is a Patent Agent and will be based in the firm’s newly established Hartford office once it opens. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Washington – Seattle. The focus of her doctoral work was organocatalysis and new reaction development. Her post-doctoral research was directed to stereoselective, organometallic catalysis. Lovick provides clients with patent drafting and prosecution services. She has over a decade of experience in the FDA-regulated medical device and tissue banking industry. As a certified tissue banking specialist (CTBS) and research scientist, she developed several patented products and methods. In addition to her intellectual property work, Lovick’s experience includes regulatory filings, experimental design, new product development, and other design control processes.