Vierra Named to IP Toolworks List of Top Women in 101 Patent Prosecution

BCLP Attorney Linda Vierra has been honored as one of the seven best female IP attorneys in the country to overcome 101 rejections, as named by IP Toolworks.

If a patent application receives a Section 101 rejection (sometimes referred to as a “subject matter eligibility” or “Alice” rejection) that means the examiner believes the claim relates to a type of invention that is ineligible for patent protection.

“The seven women selected for recognition boast exceptional track records, having each successfully prosecuted between fifty and ninety applications facing 101 rejections at time of publication,” IP Toolworks noted. “Such achievement rightly affords best-in-class status, placing our recipients within the top 0.3% of patent prosecutors in this challenging field.”

Vierra is a registered patent attorney whose practice focuses on intellectual property law including drafting patent applications and patent prosecution. Her legal experience encompasses areas of computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning approaches, mobile applications and business applications. She holds a B.S. in molecular biology and a B.A. in economics.

“Use each interview with a respective patent examiner for a 101 rejection as a collaborative experience rather than an adversarial one,” Vierra noted when asked for a favorite practice tip. “During the interview, engage in a type of ‘active brainstorming’ with the patent examiner based on support you can readily point to in the specification. Such an approach often leads to determining more than one way to amend the claims that move prosecution forward even when no agreement was reached in the interview.”

Click here to read more from “Celebrating Excellence: Women Patent Prosecutors with Remarkable Track Records in 101,” by IP Toolworks.