About Us – C+L was formed in January 2006, when Dr. Karen Canady merged the biotechnology patent practice she had formed and grown as a partner at Gates & Cooper LLP with the mechanical/software/ communications patent practice already established by Brad Lortz. Our practice grew in 2011 when Laurence Hyman, a former partner at Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP, became Of Counsel to the firm, establishing our San Francisco office, and again in 2014, when Suzannah K. Sundby, a partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, joined our partnership and opened our Washington, D.C. office.
Our team of attorneys is supported by Jane San, a paralegal with certification in patent prosecution and several years of experience at the Office of Intellectual Property of the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as with a litigation boutique firm.
We have served academic and research institutes throughout our careers. We enjoy interacting with faculty and research scientists, and working with technology transfer offices to further their mission of bringing their technology to the public. We understand the importance of protecting university interests while working cooperatively and amicably with licensees and inventors. We pride ourselves on being small and nimble enough to tailor our practice style, billing format, reporting practices, and level of communication to suit each client’s needs and preferences. We value our clients’ feedback and enjoy in-person interaction, which enhances communication. We find this approach with clients, inventors, and examiners, to be an important component of effective and productive patent prosecution.
Firm Infrastructure – C+L is a limited liability partnership and is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, with offices in San Francisco, CA and Washington, DC. C+L is a women-owned business concern.
Licenses and Registrations – Our attorneys are licensed to practice in California, the District of Columbia, and New York. We are registered to practice before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. We are also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts of California.
Communications – Our general philosophy for communications with clients is that:
- Communications should be convenient, concise, seamless, and timely;
- Clients should feel free to telephone us without having to schedule an appointment;
- We tailor our communications with inventors, licensees, and technology transfer personnel on a case-by-case or a portfolio basis as requested by the client;
- Often we do not bill for brief communications that would take more time to enter into our accounting system and send an invoice;
- We often write-off short client consultations, as client development, in which we provide input on whether to proceed with filing an application because we understand that if the client proceeds, the client will entrust the work with us;
- We reply to client inquiries, if not the day of, the next business day;
- Office actions and other correspondence from the USPTO should be reported within a week of receipt (usually within a day or two);
- Letters reporting correspondence from foreign associates should be reported within a week of receipt (usually a day or two);
- We provide a copy of the pending claims when reporting Office actions;
- We indicate urgent emails as “urgent” and follow-up with a telephone call;
- We usually indicate a default action in our communications in case we do not receive timely instructions from the client; and
- We mainly use email for correspondence and use US Express Mail or another courier service for delivering official ribbon documents.