Karl Renner is a Principal in the Washington, D.C. office of Fish & Richardson P.C. Mr. Renner co-chairs the firm’s Post-Grant Practice Group, and he serves on the firm’s Management Committee. His practice emphasizes client counseling, strategic patent prosecution, and contentious inter and ex parte post-grant and reissue work. In this practice, Mr. Renner has provided direction for well over 300 AIA post-grant matters, challenging and defending patents, most commonly in coordination with litigation counsel amidst co-pending disputes. Recently, he was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the PTAB Bar Association, the first national bar association of its kind to form in more than 30 years. The PTAB Bar Association intends to establish best practices for the unique practice and skills required before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Mr. Renner manages the patent portfolios of clients ranging from emerging companies to Fortune 50 corporations. He also regularly advises on effective commercialization/enforcement of company IP, and on defensive tactics to address competitor IP. In this regard, he specializes in post-grant matters, representing both patent owners and challengers.
His technical focus is on the electrical, computer-related, physics and mechanical arts. As such, Mr. Renner has extensive experience in the following technologies: internet-driven solutions, network systems and protocols, data storage and retrieval standards and media, microprocessor and computer architecture, mobile and other communications equipment and processes, display technologies, semiconductor devices and fabrication processes, signal and image processing techniques, complex optical and mechanical devices, error detection and correction techniques, cryptography, telecommunications, financial processes, acoustics and video standards and equipment, and thermodynamic processes and systems.
Mr. Renner has prior engineering experience with the Instrumentation Branch of the U.S. Department of Energy, where he worked on the development and implementation of control systems, high-frequency optical imaging of particles during combustion processes, computer programming in machine and object oriented languages, and computer design and breadboard testing of analog circuits. Mr. Renner is now a frequent lecturer and author on intellectual property matters, regularly speaking at University of Maryland events, in conjunction with their Engineering Schools and Hinman CEO program.