Ferrill, Elizabeth D.
Finnegan | Partner
Elizabeth Ferrill is an “undisputed expert on design patents” who is “always updated and enlightening others with her deep knowledge,” “very involved in the design bar,” and “gives her clients an outstanding service” as noted in Intellectual Asset Management Patent 1000. She focuses her practice on all aspects of design patents, including prosecution, counseling, post-grant, and litigation.
Elizabeth counsels clients who hold design patents as well as those accused of infringement. She has experience with design patents related to consumer and industrial products, medical devices, transportation and construction vehicles, and graphical user interfaces and icons. She has prosecuted families of design patents before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), directed prosecution in foreign countries, and argued appeals before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). She has a special interest in strategic counseling related to acquiring for worldwide protection for designs. She also litigates design patent matters at the U.S. district court level that include trade dress claims. In addition, she has appeared before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Elizabeth also has extensive experience in utility patent litigation in the areas of software- and hardware-related technologies. Elizabeth’s litigation experience includes pre-litigation analysis, managing discovery in all aspects of fact and expert discovery, orchestrating complex claim construction analysis and briefing, and summary judgment briefing. She has experience in discovery dispute resolution, expert and fact witness preparation and depositions, and settlement negotiations. Elizabeth has been recognized by Intellectual Asset Management as a leader in patent litigation and transactions in the D.C. area, and nationally for design patents.
Before beginning her legal career, Elizabeth graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy and served five years on active duty as a communications officer. She was stationed at Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C., coordinating and overseeing testing of joint intelligence software systems, and at Thule Air Base, Greenland, where she served as the flight commander in charge of base communications.
Prior to joining the firm, Elizabeth served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Liam O’Grady at the U.S. District Court for the E.D. of Virginia, Alexandria Division. She is an adviser and contributor to Finnegan’s Federal Circuit IP blog.
As part of Finnegan’s pro bono program, Elizabeth worked extensively on behalf of military veterans and represented criminal defendants in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, the E.D. of Virginia, and the Virginia Supreme Court. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Community Tax Aid, Inc. a local Washington, D.C. non-profit that provides free tax preparation service to low- and moderate-income families.