More about the SDIPLA

If you have any questions about SDIPLA please contact one of our current officers.
If you have any concerns about this website, please contact Jo Dale Carothers.

Meet Our Current Officers

PRESIDENT

Bruce Greenhaus,

Bruce W. Greenhaus | 619-980-2612Bruce@jlg-iplaw.com
Partner with Jaquez Land Greenhaus LLP

Bruce is a founding partner of the patent law firm of Jaquez Land Greenhaus LLP. The firm is a full-service IP firm with three partners, each having over 28 years of experience in all aspects of IP law, specializing in prosecution, licensing and litigation support related to electrical patents.

He was formerly with Qualcomm for 10 years, the last five as Vice President, Patent Counsel. I have been practicing patent law in San Diego since 1991 as an associate with the law firm of Spensley Horn Jubas & Lubitz and then in 1995, with the firm of Baker, Maxham, Jester, & Meador.

He was Vice President, Chief Patent Counsel at Entropic Communications, Inc, where he worked from Dec. of 2007 until joining forces with Marty Jaquez and John Land, my former associates at Spensley Horn. He has been an adjunct professor with Thomas Jefferson School of Law (TJLS). At TJLS, he taught patent law classes on claim drafting, litigation, and claim interpretation.

He was Co-Chair of the CommNexus Intellectual Property Special Interest Group (IP SIG) and a member of the San Diego Intellectual Property Law Association (SDIPLA). He is a past president of the SDIPLA, where he spent five years on the Board.


VICE PRESIDENT

John R. Lanham | 858.314.7601 | jlanham@mofo.com
Associate, Morrison Foerster, LLP

John Lanham is an associate in the firm’s Intellectual Property Group. Mr. Lanham focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation and commercial litigation. Mr. Lanham brings his broad-based business litigation experience to bear on his clients’ most challenging disputes.

Mr. Lanham has worked in both the San Diego and Denver offices of Morrison Foerster. He has represented clients in the pharmaceutical, financial, communications, information technology, natural resources, and healthcare industries. Mr. Lanham regularly assists clients with all phases of litigation, including development of case strategy, dispositive motions, claim construction, fact discovery, expert discovery, trial preparation, alternative dispute resolution, and taking and defending the depositions of both fact and expert witnesses. Mr. Lanham frequently works with scientific and economic experts to develop accurate and persuasive case theories for his clients. He also maintains an active pro bono practice focused on children’s rights and constitutional issues.


SECRETARY

Douglas Clark | 858.703.3133 | dlclark@jonesday.com
Associate, Jones Day

Doug Clark is involved in many different aspects of civil litigation, with a focus on intellectual property litigation, primarily patents and trade secrets as well as copyrights and trademarks. During his career, he has brokered or has been integral to the favorable settlements in at least three dozen matters.

Doug also has successfully argued before the PTAB resulting in the invalidation of an opponent’s patent. He has represented clients in diverse categories of technology, including semiconductors, cell phone technology, digital content processing, MMS/SMS technology, wireless communications, memory card readers, thumb drives, electronic locks, RF technology, solar power, wire design, aircraft fire inerting systems, pharmaceutical cancer drugs, gene therapy, bovine vaccines, baby products, truck aerodynamics, exercise equipment, and aircraft seating.


TREASURER

Ruthleen Uy, Councel Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton LLP

Ruthleen Uy | 858.350.3870  | ruy@kilpatricktownsend.com
Counsel, Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton LLP

Ruthleen E. Uy is Counsel in the Software and Electrical Engineering Team of Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton LLP’s Intellectual Property Department. Ruthleen focuses her practice on the preparation and prosecution of patent applications in the computer, electrical, and mechanical arts including applications directed to computer architecture, computer hardware, financial technology, mobile communications, and telecommunications. Additionally, Ms. Uy has experience prosecuting applications directed to memory management including the restoration and recovery of memory data, data compression, data encryption/decryption, databases, and data storage. She also has experience in medical devices including medical image processing and radiation controls.

In 2021, Ruthleen was identified by IP Toolworks as being within the top 0.3% of patent prosecutors in the field of overcoming 35 USC 101 rejections.

Ruthleen is admitted to the State Bar of California and Illinois, the District of Columbia, and is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  She received her law degree from DePaul University – Chicago, where she was on the Dean’s list and earned a certificate in Intellectual Property.  Ruthleen received her B.S. in computer science from Loyola University-Chicago.


IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

Nathanael R. Luman, Ph.D. | 858.707.4000 | nate.luman@knobbe.com
Partner, Knobbe Martens LLP.

Nathanael R. Luman, Ph.D., is a partner in the San Diego offices of Knobbe Martens LLP.  Nate represents chemical and pharmaceutical companies in intellectual property matters. He is actively involved in Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.  In addition, he has litigated cases under the Hatch-Waxman Act and counseled generic pharmaceutical companies with respect to the Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) process.

Nate develops patent portfolios for companies.  His expertise includes strategic patent procurement, analyzing third-party patents, conducting due diligence studies, and preparing opinions on patent validity and freedom-to-operate issues. In 2012, Nate served as a law clerk to the Honorable Marilyn L. Huff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. He worked on numerous patent litigation cases during his clerkship. He is admitted to the State Bar of California and registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He received his law degree, with honors, from the University of San Diego School of Law.

Nate earned his doctoral degree in chemistry from Boston University, where his work involved the synthesis and characterization of biodegradable molecules and macromolecules. His research has been published in a variety of scientific journals, including The Journal of the American Chemical Society, Organic Letters, and Pure & Applied Chemistry.


The SDIPLA Past Presidents

Everett N. Curtis (1956-57)
Walter J. Jason (1957-58)
Egon W. Mueller (1958-59)
Warren H.F. Schmieding (1959-60)
George E Pearson (1960-61)
Roy L. Knox (1961-62)
Carl R. Brown (1962-63)
Earl F. Karts (1963-64)
Vincent E. Sullivan (1964-65)
George E. Pearson (1965-66)
Carl R. Brown (1966-67)
J. Peter Mohn (1967-68)
Nell F. Martin (1968-69)
Thomas G. Keough (1969-70)
Thomas D. Lane (1970-71)
John R. Duncan (1971-72)
George J. Rubens (1972-73)
Frank D. Gilliam (1973-74)
Patrick J. Schlesinger (1974-75)
Ralph S. Branscomb(1975-76)
Charles C. Logan (1976-77)
Nell F. Martin (1977-78)
Henri J.A Charmasson (1978-79)
John L. Haller (1979-80)
Edward W. Callan (1980-81)
Mervyn L. Young (1981)
Freling E. Baker (1981-82)
Charles Fassbender (1983-84)
Michael H. Jester (1984-85)
Natalie Jensen (1985-86)
Lawrence A. Maxham (1986-87)
John R. Lindsay (1987-88)
R. Ben Miller (1988-89)
J.F. McLellan (1989-90)

John R. Ross. Jr. (1990-91)
Jim McClain (1991-92)
April Logan (1992-93)
Nancy Dahl (1993-94)
Anita M. Kirkpatrick (1994-95)
Kathleen A. Pasulka (1995-96)
Laurie A. Axford (1996-97)
Lisa Haile (1997-98)
Susan Perkins (1998)
Lisa Haile (1999)
Bruce Greenhaus (1999-2000)
Stephen Korniczky (2000-01)
Sam Talpalatsky (2001-02)
Richard Kim (2002-03)
Mark D. Wieczorek (2003-04)
Vicki G. Norton (2004-05)
Kent M. Walker (2005-06)
Robert Prince (2006-07)
Tom Coverstone (2007-08)
Boris Zelkind (2008-09)
Jessica S. Mitchell (2009-10)
John E. Peterson, PhD (2010-11)
Kenneth Jenkins, Ph.D. (2011-2012)
Kurt Kjelland (2012-2103)
Marc Morley (2013-2014)
JoDale Carothers (2014-2015)
Les Overman (2015-2016)
Shawn McDonald (2016-2017)
Rose Thiessen (2017-2018)
Bernard J. Greenspan (2018-2019)
Desmond O’Sullivan (2019-2020)
Justin Gray (2020-2021)
Nate Luman (2021-2022)