Lewis Roca Welcomes Two Esteemed Patent Lawyers to the Firm's Intellectual Property Practice in Phoenix

Press Release

06/15/2020

PHOENIX (June 15, 2020) – Lewis Roca announced Ralph Selitto and John Kim have joined the firm’s Intellectual Property Group as partners in the firm’s Phoenix office. Selitto and Kim bring with them extensive experience representing clients’ intellectual property interests in the areas of patent prosecution, counseling, litigation and licensing. With the addition of Selitto and Kim, Lewis Roca further strengthens and enhances its resources in Phoenix to provide a broad range of intellectual property services to clients.

“Ralph Selitto and John Kim are well-respected patent prosecution lawyers who bring with them an impressive track record of success for clients,” said Ken Van Winkle, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie’s managing partner. “We’re excited to expand our IP patent capabilities in the Southwest and to introduce them to our clients.”

Ralph Selitto is a registered patent lawyer with experience in all aspects of intellectual property law and has assisted clients in the development and management of global patent, trademark and copyright portfolios, while counseling them on the strategic commercialization and valuation of their portfolios. Selitto’s work has included the preparation and prosecution of numerous U.S. and foreign patent and trademark applications, as well as drafting license agreements and infringement, validity and freedom-to-operate opinions. These efforts have enabled Selitto to develop broad experience in the evaluation of intellectual property, from both a legal and business perspective.

In addition to his considerable prosecution and transactional experience, Selitto has gained wide-ranging, career-long litigation experience by representing clients in a number of lawsuits involving patents, trademarks and copyrights. More recently, he defended a number of clients in lawsuits involving patent invalidity defenses that resulted in the asserted patents being subjected to administrative challenges in the form of post-grant or inter partes reviews in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He has been recognized by Chambers USA in the area of patent prosecution and by IAM magazine as one of the IAM Patent 1000.

Selitto serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Arizona Technology Council and received his J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, where he was a member of The Law Review and earned his B.E. with honors from Stevens Institute of Technology.

John Kim is an experienced intellectual property lawyer who has represented clients in a wide range of IP matters including patents, trademarks and copyrights. His transactional practice includes preparing and prosecuting patent, trademark and copyright applications in the United States and foreign countries, as well as conducting all types of investigations on intellectual property assets. Kim also has wide-ranging litigation experience involving patent, trademark, and copyright infringement claims. More recently, he prosecuted a number of AIA trials before the Patent and Trial Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Kim was named one of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business in 2014 and received Lexology’s Client Choice Award USA & Canada, Intellectual Property – Patents. He serves as Co-Chair of the Patent Subcommittee of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and as a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He received his J.D. from Rutgers School of Law and his B.S. from The Cooper Union and is fluent in Korean.

About Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP

Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP is an Am Law 200 commercial law firm handling complex matters in litigation, intellectual property, business transactions, gaming, government relations and other practice areas. Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie offices are located in Albuquerque, Colorado Springs, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Reno, Silicon Valley and Tucson. For more information, visit lewisroca.com.

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