Nan Carr, an intellectual property attorney with NZ Carr Law Office in Houston, recently spoke with Texas Lawyer about the state of intellectual property law during the COVID-19 pandemic and what we can expect once the virus is vanquished.

What's happening in your practice area of IP law?

Nan Carr: We are a small boutique firm mainly handling patent and trademark prosecution.  We also do some opinion work and provide litigation support.  About half of our clients are from Asia. The pandemic in Asia coincided with the Spring Festival, which is a traditional downtime for business there.  We had anticipated that our Asian clients would slow down during this period, so it did not come as a complete shock to us. Most of our Asian clients extended their Spring Festival downtime for about a month to cope with pandemic and have since picked up their business.  Some U.S. clients were hit by surprise and forced to cope with various urgent matters in their operations. But it appears that most U.S. clients have found their footing. We provided support to our clients as they needed during the past few months and we expect work to pick up again soon.

Is the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) responding at its usual rate or do you think the review of these applications (and other procedures) is taking more time under current circumstances?

We haven't felt any obvious delays from the USPTO in our dealings with the Office. We are diligent in keeping our clients informed with updates of their pending applications and any resolutions from the USPTO.

What should IP attorneys be doing in response to the changes that have occurred since December 2019?

As patent prosecution attorneys, we are lucky to be able to do most of our work remotely from our clients, colleagues, and the USPTO. The pandemic has forced us to collaborate even more online. It is a good opportunity to get familiar with technology and further reduce our overhead to serve our clients more efficiently.

What questions should clients or potential clients be asking due to changes in their business, the courts and the process of filing patents?

We noticed that some clients have been withholding spending decisions on IP matters. We would encourage our clients and potential clients to involve us with their decision process, so we can provide our input to prioritize their spending, and to come up with cost- effective solutions without sacrificing the value of their core IP assets.

Nan Carr is a well-rounded IP attorney with NZ Carr Law Office in Houston. She counsels clients for their needs on patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret protection. Using her broad spectrum of IP experience, Nan has involved in developing or assessing client's intellectual property strategy. She strives to understand the client's business model, technology, products, competitors, market activity, opportunities for growth, existing IP portfolio and more to help clients develop and protect their IP rights.