Georgia PATENTS Advisory Board

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Stephen is a registered patent attorney and an experienced engineer. As an associate at Kilpatrick Townsend, he counsels inventors and high-tech companies in protecting their intellectual property rights. Stephen regularly drafts and prosecutes patent applications in technical areas such as artificial intelligence and signal processing. Stephen’s experience also includes open source licensing and intellectual property diligence.

Before becoming an attorney, Stephen worked for over a decade in various engineering roles at small and large organizations. In those roles, he enjoyed traveling abroad to diverse places such as Korea, Japan, Israel, and Europe to provide technical training and assist with sales efforts.

Stephen is committed to protecting the rights of innovators and artists. In 2017, he received a USPTO Patent Pro Bono certificate for his work with solo inventors. Stephen is also active in education-related causes. During the 2017-2018 school year, he co-taught advanced placement computer science at a high school in Atlanta. As a naturalized U.S. Citizen, Stephen is passionate about immigration policy and focuses his pro-bono practice on immigration matters. Stephen is also an Eagle Scout.

Stephen received his law degree from the University of North Carolina, a M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a B. Eng. from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom. Stephen and his wife live in Decatur with their three children.

Scott is the President of AT&T Intellectual Property. He is responsible for the identification, development, protection, management, marketing, licensing, and sale of all company-wide intellectual property. Scott was named President of AT&T Intellectual Property in March of 2007 following the December 2006 merger of AT&T and BellSouth, where he had previously been the President of Intellectual Property since 1998. During his 9 years at BellSouth before the merger, Scott grew their patent portfolio from less than 50 patents to more than 1000 patents, exponentially expanded their IP marketing and greatly added to their bottom line, and gained recognition from BusinessWeek for the significant value of their patent portfolio. Since joining AT&T, Scott has grown their patent portfolio to approximately 15,000 patents worldwide, been recognized by the Wall Street Journal as the #2 most valuable patent portfolio in telecom behind only Qualcomm, and has successfully licensed and sold patents, trademarks, and copyrighted technology to add significant dollars to AT&T’s bottom line.

Scott received his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech, and his Law Degree and Masters in Business from Georgia State University. He is heavily involved in many IP groups, including the being Chair for Georgia State University’s Intellectual Property Advisory Board.

Scott lives in Atlanta, Georgia and is married with four children.

Laura serves as the Director of Patent and License and Chief IP Counsel for the Office of Tech Transfer at Emory University. She oversees Emory’s in-house patent group, provides contracting advice to the licensing team, and ensures that licensees comply with the terms of their licenses.

Before joining Emory, Laura represented branded and generic pharmaceutical companies in Abbreviated New Drug Application (“ANDA”) litigation arising under the Hatch-Waxman Act. She has been recognized by Chambers USA, by Managing IP in the “Top 250 Women in IP” and as an “IP Star,” and by LMG Life Sciences as a “Life Sciences Star.”

Brad Groff is a shareholder with the Atlanta intellectual property boutique Gardner Groff Greenwald & Villanueva, PC. His practice is primarily devoted to the procurement of patent and trademark rights and counseling clients to avoid IP problems. Brad has been recognized as one of the top attorneys in his practice area, repeatedly selected as a Georgia “Super Lawyer” in intellectual property law, named to Georgia Trend’s “Legal Elite,” and receiving Martindale-Hubbell’s highest “AV” peer-evaluated certification. He has served as Chair of both the Atlanta Bar and State Bar of Georgia Intellectual Property Sections and is active in the Atlanta IP Inn of Court.

Brad is a frequent speaker at professional programs and law schools as well as a mentor to many younger attorneys. Prior to his legal career, Brad was a mechanical engineer in the nuclear materials field. He is a named inventor on two patents and a published author. Brad devotes considerable time and resources to his community, serving in several civic organizations. His pro bono efforts include the legal representation of a faith-based youth leadership organization, trademark work for churches and church programs, and legal work for a clean drinking water initiative in Haiti.

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Kimberly Knight is a small business consultant, economic developer and communications professional with more than 25 years of experience.

Kimberly began her career at TSYS in Columbus, GA, in corporate communications, where she was editor of the company’s official corporate newsletter, speechwriter for executives, and manager of the narrative section of the company’s annual report to shareholders. She also interfaced with local, national, and international media on behalf of the company.

Kimberly has served in numerous roles in Georgia state government, beginning her career with the Governor’s Small Business Center as the marketing coordinator. Kimberly’s work supported GSBC’s outreach efforts to include the Governor’s Mentor Protégé Program, the first of its kind, state-funded program in the country.

At the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Kimberly worked in marketing, research, and business development. Her final role at GDEcD was as the Small Business Outreach Program Manager, where she assisted small businesses with navigating the vast resources of the state of Georgia via one-on-one consultations, speaking engagements and partnerships with various community organizations.

Kimberly also worked with Invest Atlanta as the small business opportunity zones program manager. Kimberly’s work with Invest Atlanta helped deploy more than $1.5 million into the small business community in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She also worked with the Opportunity Zones team, assisting small businesses with information and opportunities in the city of Atlanta’s 26 Federal Opportunity Zones.

Kimberly is currently a business consultant with the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center at Georgia State University where she provides assistance to include research, marketing support and business plan development to small businesses in the Fulton County area.

A native of Alabama, Kimberly is a graduate of Auburn University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Troy University with a Master of Science in Management.

Armed with technical experience as a mechanical engineer on an industry-leading company’s missile defense program, Chris knows how to find creative and cost-sensitive solutions to his clients’ issues. His attention to detail, thoughtful counsel, and leadership in the local legal community have helped him form long-standing relationships with some of the world’s most recognizable companies, resulting in a thriving IP practice at Alston & Bird LLP.

Chris is active not only on the Georgia PATENTS Advisory Board, but also in leadership in the Intellectual Property Owners Association, on the Board of Directors for the Atlanta Bar Association, and in the IP Section of The State Bar of Georgia. For his ongoing local bar association and community service leadership efforts, Chris has been awarded the Georgia PATENTS Program’s Volunteer of the Year Award (2015 and 2016), and the Atlanta Bar Association’s Celebrating Service Award (2015). He will also in October 2017 receive Georgia State University College of Law’s IP Community Service Award. Chris routinely speaks as a panelist at local and state bar association CLE events; in his free time he goes to the park, swimming, camping, or the Tellus Museum with his seven children.

Ellen was born in Memphis, Tennessee. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism (A.B.J) and later completed her Masters Degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (M.S.) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Ellen is currently the Regional Sales Director of Sales, Southeast U.S., Pure Storage, Inc. Pure Storage is a Silicon Valley-based market leader in independent solid-state arrays. Ellen joined Pure to build the Southeastern sales and engineering team, producing sales of $2.8M in her first year. Three years later, her team produced sales of $77M, marking 2,650% growth. This achievement earned her District the title of #1 Sales District Worldwide in 2015. Since then, Ellen and her team have continued to show sales growth.

Prior to joining Pure Storage, Ellen held various sales leadership, business development and alliance roles at Cisco and BellSouth Business Systems. She also and led the Mid-Atlantic/Southeast and Federal Teams as Divisional Vice President of sales for VCE (Virtual Computing Environment). In addition to her position on the Georgia PATENTS advisory board, Ellen enjoys volunteering as mentor for both Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), Women Unlimited, a Women’s Leadership Development Organization and serving on the Open Doors and Red Carpet committees of Saint Mark United Methodist Church’s membership outreach programs.

Ellen and her husband, Mike, reside in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia where they enjoy all the city of Atlanta has to offer from it’s fabulous restaurants, music venues and museums to its beautiful weather where they enjoy biking, hiking and tennis.

Charlie is Deputy IP Counsel for NCR Corporation, a global leader in transformational transaction technologies including online banking, point-of-sale, mobile payments, and omni-channel retailing. His practice focuses on a broad array of intellectual property related matters including IP development, protection, and monetization; sales and procurement contracting; collaboration; mergers and acquisitions; and intellectual property defense. Prior to his work at NCR, Charlie was the Technical Manager for Combustion Systems at Alstom Power where he was responsible for the worldwide development of combustion technology, focusing on NOx emissions reduction systems for pulverized coal fired utility power boilers.

In addition to a JD from the Western New England University School of Law, Charlie has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. When he’s not working, Charlie enjoys spending time with his friends and family on Martha’s Vineyard or wherever else he may find them.

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Nicole Morris is a Professor in Practice and Director of the TI:GER (Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results) program at Emory University School of Law. TI:GER is an innovative partnership between Emory and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) that brings together graduate students in law, business, science, and engineering to work on ways to take innovative ideas from the lab to the marketplace. As a Professor in Practice, her areas of expertise include patent law, patent litigation, patent prosecution, IP licensing, and strategy.

Prior to joining the Emory faculty, Nicole was the former Managing Patent Counsel at The Coca-Cola Company and was responsible for the development and implementation of the Company’s global patent strategy and providing day-to-day advice and counseling to business stakeholders.

Nicole received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern, her M.S. in Chemistry from University of Michigan, her law degree from the University of Minnesota, and is a registered patent attorney. She has over twelve years of experience practicing patent law in large and mid-sized law firms and has represented clients in patent and trademark litigation matters, as well as patent prosecution matters. She also worked as an engineer for six years with 3M and Eli Lilly and has over twenty years of experience working with consumer products and technology commercialization.

Nicole is a frequent speaker on innovation, technology commercialization, and patent law topics including patent strategy, IP licensing, and the role of corporate counsel in patent transactions. She is heavily involved in the IP community as a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), Atlanta IP Inn of Court, Atlanta Bar Association, National Bar Association IP Section, a board member of Georgia Lawyers for the Arts, and Minority In-House Counsel Association. In 2013, Professor Morris was awarded the 2013 “Rising Star Corporate Counsel Award from the Atlanta Business Chronicle and featured in the August 2013 issue of Corporate Counsel magazine.

A graduate of Berry College, Cheryl is a former high school teacher and began her legal career as a reference librarian. She is now the Director of Pro Bono and Community Service for the law firm of Alston & Bird and has served in her current role for over a decade. In addition to her work on the GA PATENTS Advisory Board, Cheryl is one of the co-founders of GAIN, the Georgia Asylum & Immigration Network, where she serves as the chair of the Advisory Board. She is an active member of the Atlanta Pro Bono Roundtable, the Atlanta Immigration Group, and recently joined the board of re:Imagine/ATL. She is actively involved with the Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta, Center for Civic Innovation, and serves on the GO Team for Paul H. Dunbar Elementary School. Cheryl is also a Past-President of the Corporate Volunteer Council of Atlanta and a proud graduate of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Regional Leadership Institute’s Class of 2016.

Matt is a Partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, practicing in all areas of IP. In addition to his focus on patent prosecution and litigation, Matt counsels clients on copyright issues and assists with obtaining, maintaining, and enforcing their trademarks. He has successfully represented and assisted clients of various sizes, from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies, while also providing pro bono legal services for the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership. Matt received his B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to receiving his J.D. from the University of Georgia’s (UGA) School of Law, he worked for Caterpillar.

Matt is an active member of the Intellectual Property section of the Georgia Bar and the Atlanta IP Inns of Court. In addition to his full-time legal practice, Matt is an Adjunct Professor of patent law at the UGA School of Law. He is also recognized as one of the top attorneys in his practice area, repeatedly selected as a Georgia “Super Lawyers’ Rising Star” in intellectual property law and named to Georgia Trend’s “Legal Elite.”

Matt is also very active in his local community. He is a recent graduate of Leadership Buckhead, and an active supporter of the arts in Atlanta. In his free time, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife Tori and their son Cal, reading, biking through the city, and cheering on his local professional and collegiate sports teams.