Started in 1972, the Orlando-based firm recently opened an office in Southpoint to better serve its Jacksonville clients and to build a law firm in Jacksonville. There’s also an office in Melbourne. Daily Record staff writer Michele Newbern Gillis met recently with Herbert Allen, senior shareholder, and Ava Doppelt, shareholder, to discuss the firm.
WHAT DOES THE FIRM DO?
The firm represents domestic and international clients in intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, antitrust and unfair competition, trade regulation, both domestic and international and securities and related commercial litigation before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in state and federal courts.
WHAT DOES THAT ENTAIL?
“We handle things relating to intellectual property, including publishing, entertainment, music, art, computers, technology and things relating to the Internet,” said Doppelt. “We litigate all those as well, so we do go to court if somebody infringes a copyright or breaches a publishing contract or has a dispute over a plagiarism issue. We have clients in the media industry, including magazines and book publishers that we advise.”
WHY OPEN A FIRM IN JACKSONVILLE?
“We do have a client base here and we were just motivated to come here,” said Allen. “We thought there was a need.” Doppelt said there doesn’t seem to be a lot of people practicing in their field in Jacksonville. “This is a growing field and as more and more businesses move to Jacksonville, the more there will be a need for this type of firm here,” said Doppelt. “It is kind of high technology law and the field itself is expanding. More and more people are looking to intellectual property lawyers for issues like Internet issues or software issues. People who usually don’t think of themselves as needing patent lawyers because they do not have an invention suddenly realize they may have patentable things that they are doing.”
WHO IS IN THE FIRM?
Herbert Allen, Robert Dyer, Ava Doppelt, Stephen Milbrath, Brian Gilchrist, Christopher Regan, David Sigalow, Richard Warther and Enrique Estevez are partners. Michael Taylor, Paul Ditmyer, John Woodson II, Richard Hinson, David Henry, Barbara Rudolph Smith, Brandy Hill, Jon Gibbs, Mark Malek and Leonard Kern are associates. Charles Wands is of counsel. Jacqueline Hartt and Carl Napolitano are patent agents with the firm. “We have 22 professionals. We have to make that distinction because we have 20 lawyers and two patent agents,” said Doppelt. “People who practice patent law, meaning they file patent applications at the patent office, have to pass a special test called the Patent Bar. You don’t have to be a lawyer to take that test, but you do have to have a technological or scientific background. What we have in our office is a number of engineers and scientists who are also lawyers and two Ph.Ds physicists who are not lawyers, but who are patent agents.”
WHO IN THEIR FIRM IS A PATENT ATTORNEY?
Allen, Regan, Sigalow, Warther, Estevez, Taylor, Ditmyer, Woodson, Hinson, Hill, Gibbs and Malek.
WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR CLIENTS?
St. John and Partners, McGraw Hill, Harcourt Inc., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida and Panama Jack.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN WITH YOUR JACKSONVILLE OFFICE?
“We just opened the office Aug. 1 and our plan is to expand this office with full-time attorneys, which we do not have yet,” said Allen. “They are hard to find. Right now, we have the phone answered in Orlando and people can drive up to serve clients in Jacksonville. I come up at least twice a week. We will hire as many lawyers as the market place demands.”
“We wanted an office in Jacksonville because we’ve always had clients here,” said Doppelt. “We’ve had clients all over the state and throughout the country, but we thought it was a good idea to be able to meet with people face-to-face. We are hoping to cultivate Jacksonville and to grow our practice here.”
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE SOUTHPOINT?
“It was a closer drive to Orlando and there are a lot of businesses in this area, so it has been very convenient,” said Allen.
“It is exciting to be here. Most of our litigation is in federal court and we are in the same district as Jacksonville so we do litigate here and we feel at home in this court,” said Doppelt. “It is a great opportunity in a city that has a lot potential business for us. We are hoping to provide a service that people need.”
DO THEY HIRE LATERAL OR NEW ATTORNEYS?
Both. It depends on their technological qualifications primarily in the patent field and if they fulfill a need in the firm for a particular expertise like electrical or mechanical engineering.
WHAT DO YOU OFFER
YOUR CLIENTS?
“Full-service intellectual property with a great deal of depth in terms of our technical capabilities and experience,” said Allen.
“Also, if something goes wrong, we can also litigate the case,” Doppelt. “A lot of firms who do patent work are truly just patent firms and just prosecute patents, but if something happens they have to send it somewhere else because they don’t do litigation. We do both.”
WHAT MAKES YOUR FIRM UNIQUE?
“We are the largest intellectual property boutique firm in Florida,” said Allen.
WHERE DOES YOUR BUSINESS COME FROM?
“Most of our business comes from referrals from other lawyers and existing clients,” said Allen. “Most of our work, we are working alongside a lawyer that has a client that they are doing some bigger project and we are doing some specific part of that project related to intellectual property.”
DO YOU ENCOURAGE PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT?
Yes. Allen is a member of the Jacksonville Bar Association and will encourage his other attorneys to join. “We are very outgoing in civic and bar associations and activities,” said Doppelt. “We have been active in the Orange County Bar and we hope to get active here as well.”
WHAT ARE YOU PROUD OF ABOUT YOUR FIRM?
“One thing I am very proud of is that we have four of our attorneys who are adjunct professors teaching intellectual law,” said Allen.
WEBSITE
www.patentamerica.com