Invoke was founded by Mr. Varun A. Shah, a highly experienced Intellectual Property attorney practicing in Silicon Valley. Mr. Shah has served clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 tech companies including Oracle, Dolby, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Cisco, Netflix, TiVo, Fanvana, Yahoo!, Intuit, Condusiv Technologies, Improvised Electronics, Schlumberger, and Sun Microsystems (prior to Oracle acquisition).

Formerly, Mr. Shah served in-house as the Global Head of Intellectual Property development at Aruba Networks (acquired by HP for $3B). At Aruba Networks, Mr. Shah focused on IP strategy and built a patent program recognized by the Wall Street Journal: “...Aruba Networks Inc had the largest increase in [patent] rank, 22 spots to now rank 36th due to an increase in both patents and impact.”

Mr. Shah has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a top rated IP attorney in Northern California. Mr. Shah is often invited by his peers to speak at IP events worldwide.

Mr. Brandt concentrates his practice on drafting and prosecuting patents in the computer software and hardware fields. His sub-specialties include telecommunications, enterprise software, electrical systems, business methods, speech recognition and signal analysis, networking protocols, cryptography, consumer electronics, embedded systems, database models and e-commerce.

Mr. Brandt also assists clients in the preparation of opinions of clearance, non-infringement, and invalidity. Mr. Brandt has authored and published Compulsory Licenses in the Aftermath of eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C.: The Courts’ Authority to Impose Prospective Compensatory Relief for Patent Infringement, 17 Fed. Cir. B.J. 699 (2008).

Mr. Brandt earned his Juris Doctorate, cum laude from the George Mason University. During law school, Mr. Brandt served as the Notes Director for the Federal Circuit Bar Journal. Mr. Brandt was also a member of both the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and the BYU Management Society. Prior to law school, Mr. Brandt worked as a web developer, software engineer, and technical editor. Mr. Brandt earned his B.S. degree in Computer Engineering, with a minor in Mathematics from the Brigham Young University. At Brigham Young University, Mr. Brandt was selected as a Finalist in the IEEE Student Paper Contest.

Mr. Mullins is a registered patent attorney with three decades of patent-related strategic counseling, prosecution, licensing, opinion writing, portfolio analysis,  trade-secret, and due-diligence experience.  He has secured patent protection for hundreds of electrical and medical technology inventions, authored publications on patent-practice and other intellectual property (IP), been engaged as a guest speaker, lectured on technical and legal patent topics, chaired professional committees, and served as a community judge.

 
Mr. Mullins currently concentrates his practice on patent prosecution in the electrical and medical technologies. His focus typically relates to innovations relating to computers, networks, telecommunications, medical devices, user interfaces, data security, virus detection, virtual and augmented reality, power networks, sensors, mobile navigation systems, semiconductors, and analog/digital circuits.
 
Prior to becoming an IP attorney, Mr. Mullins was an Examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. During his tenure, Mr. Mullins examined patent applications in technologies related to dynamic information storage and retrieval. Furthermore, Mr. Mullins served as Floor Representative for the Patent Office Professional Association (POPA). Mr. Mullins earned his Juris Doctorate degree from the Santa Clara University School of Law in 1994 with a High Tech Law emphasis, while serving on the Santa Clara Law Review. He earned his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston in 1990.

Mr. Ashburn has worked in the field of intellectual property law for over 20 years.  He concentrates his practice on patent preparation, prosecution, opinions, patentability and opposition searches, and post-grant reviews.  His experience primarily relates to technologies in the electrical arts, computers, software, and business methods. Example technologies include virtual reality, gaming, financial business methods, cloud services, artificial intelligence, medical devices, user interfaces, social networks, biometrics, data security, virus detection, cryptology, training systems, computer networks, electrical power networks, sensors, mobile navigation systems, analog/digital circuits, and semiconductors.

Prior to becoming an intellectual property attorney, Mr. Ashburn was an Examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office for over 5 years. During his tenure, Mr. Ashburn examined patent applications in technologies related to electronic gaming, gambling, entertainment, and training systems. Additionally, Mr. Ashburn worked for over six years as an Electrical Engineer for a U.S. Navy laboratory that constructs flight simulators supporting the test and evaluation of aircraft and avionics.

Mr. Ashburn earned his Juris Doctorate from American University in 2005.  He earned a MBA from Florida Institute of Technology in 1999, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park in 1994.

Ms. Swindell concentrates her practice on drafting and prosecuting patents in the field of computer software. She has broad expertise drafting and prosecuting patents in the fields of audio processing on mobile devices, social networking, internet commerce, computer gaming, office and business productivity, teleconferencing, computer-aided design, mathematical modeling, video analytics, and distance learning applications. Ms. Swindell also has experience in the fields of electrosurgical devices, liquid cooling systems, and prosthetic devices.
 
In addition to helping clients to obtain patent protection for their inventions, Ms. Swindell counsels clients in matters of patentability and freedom-to-operate.
 
Ms. Swindell earned her Juris Doctorate from the George Mason School of Law in 2005 with a concentration in Intellectual Property. She earned a M.S. in Computer Science from the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A. in Astronomy-Physics from the University of Virginia.

Mr. Ripley is a registered patent attorney with nearly two decades of experience advising clients on all aspects of Intellectual Property.  Mr. Ripley has served clients ranging from individual inventors to Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Ripley takes time to understand his clients' intellectual property assets and provide strategic advice on how best to protect these assets.

Mr. Ripley has extensive experience in assisting clients in, preparing opinions of clearance, non-infringement, and invalidity, conducting due diligence investigations, mining patents, and managing their intellectual property portfolios.  Mr. Ripley currently concentrates his practices on patent drafting and patent prosecution in the computer and medical technologies, including machine learning, information technology, electronic medical record management, and patient care applications.

Mr. Ripley earned his Juris Doctorate at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, then known as Pierce Law Center, in Concord, New Hampshire in 2005.  During law school, Mr. Ripley focused on Intellectual Property coursework and served as a teaching assistant for a Patent Prosecution course targeting claim drafting skills.  Mr. Ripley earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, MA in 1999.

Mr. Ellsworth concentrates his practice on drafting and prosecuting patents in the fields of computer software and hardware. He has broad expertise drafting and prosecuting patents in the fields of computer system design and implementation, circuitry and chip design and fabrication, including semiconductor-based memory and control devices, communications systems including wired and wireless systems, aircraft systems, medical devices, display devices, and power systems.

In addition to helping clients to obtain patent protection for their inventions, Mr. Ellsworth also assists clients to obtain trademarks, in copyright registration and infringement issues, and counsels clients in matters of patentability, freedom-to-operate, and infringement/non-infringement opinions, and in due-diligence analyses.

Mr. Ellsworth earned his Juris Doctorate, cum laude from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2006. He earned is B.S. in Electronics Engineering in Technology in 2002 from Brigham Young University.

Mr. Hicks concentrates his practice on preparing and prosecuting patents in the computer software and hardware fields. He has particular knowledge in the fields of networking, network security, mobile applications, augmented and virtual reality systems, cloud storage and services, tape-based storage systems, solid state memory storage systems and devices, and software-as-a-service. Mr. Hicks has been a practicing patent attorney for over ten years managing multiple client dockets in a range of technical fields and ranging in size from small start-ups to global multi-nationals.

Prior to attending law school, Mr. Hicks worked as a Control Systems Engineer for a global construction firm specializing in biotechnology installations and as an Applications Engineer for a large industrial controls company in the Midwest.

Mr. Hicks earned his Juris Doctorate from Santa Clara University School of Law with a High Tech Law certificate in 2008. He earned the CALI Award for highest grade in two courses in his last year of law school. Mr. Hicks earned a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering in 2000 from the University of Iowa.

Mr. Shonkwiler has over a decade of experience in intellectual property law with a focus on drafting and prosecuting patent applications and supporting global patent portfolio development projects in collaboration with inventors and in-house patent counsel for Fortune 100 companies as well as start-up company founders. 

His experience as a patent attorney covers technologies including laser additive manufacturing systems, aeronautical gas turbine engines, combustion systems, aerospace materials, electro-mechanical devices, optics, acoustics, lidar, chemical engineering, augmented reality, voice recognition, software, control systems, machine learning, and process automation.

Prior to his career as a patent attorney, Mr. Shonkwiler was a process engineer at a manufacturing facility for a Fortune 500 company, where he worked on process improvements, capital projects, and process control systems.

Mr. Shonkwiler earned his Juris Doctorate and Masters in Business Administration degrees from the University of Oregon in 2009 and his B.S. from the University of Washington in 2002. 

Mr. Karlsson’s practice focuses on patent preparation and prosecution in a variety of software-related technologies, including programming languages, artificial intelligence and machine learning, FinTech, search engines, security, cloud computing, data centers, medical devices, networking, workflow automation, user interfaces, social media, and various SaaS platforms.  In addition to drafting and prosecuting patent applications, Mr. Karlsson works closely with clients to craft IP strategies that meet business objectives and maximize portfolio values, including delivery of invalidity and non-infringement opinions that allow clients to proceed confidently with new product development.

Mr. Karlsson’s technology industry experience includes work as a Software Engineer at Western Union Payment Services, where he designed and implemented back-end business logic, security features, and user interfaces for online bill payment systems.  Mr. Karlsson also worked as a Systems Analyst at biotech company InterMune, Inc., where he researched, installed, tested, and supported software for the company’s core business groups.

Mr. Karlsson earned his Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2011. He earned a B.A. in Computer Science from Grinnell College in 2001.