K. Sam Brooks

Sam Brooks helps technology companies protect complex products, develop strategic patent portfolios, and navigate patent disputes. An engineer before becoming a lawyer and a former in-house counsel for a Fortune 1000 manufacturer, Sam brings a practical perspective to intellectual property matters shaped by experience on both sides of the attorney-client relationship.

Sam focuses his practice on patent prosecution, strategic portfolio development, post-grant proceedings, and intellectual property counseling involving sophisticated electrical, electromechanical, software, and industrial technologies. He works with technologies that combine hardware, electronics, controls, communications, and software, translating complex engineering concepts into patent strategies designed to protect commercially important innovations and provide meaningful coverage as products and markets evolve.

Sam counsels clients on patentability and freedom-to-operate issues, competitive patent assessments, continuation strategy, and domestic and international portfolio management. His approach starts with understanding the technology and the business behind it: what makes a product innovative, which features create commercial value, where competitors may seek to design around patent protection, and where investment in additional patent coverage is warranted.

Sam also represents clients in inter partes review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). He has led IPR proceedings resulting in favorable outcomes for clients and served as first-chair counsel at an oral hearing before the PTAB. His post-grant experience gives him an important perspective on how patents are tested after issuance, including issues involving claim construction, prior art, and patent validity.

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