Kiri Lee Sharon
Partner
Kiri Lee Sharon counsels clients on intellectual property matters throughout the IP life cycle, from pre-filing strategy through patent enforcement and licensing. Kiri takes pride in providing clear and commercially focused advice to her clients. She is a partner in the firm’s Mechanical & Electromechanical Technologies and Electronics Practices and Patent Office Trials Group.
Kiri supports an international and diverse clientele, including startups, universities, and large global corporations. She is adept at handling large international patent portfolios, including patent prosecution, appeals, and reissues.
Kiri regularly analyzes infringement, validity, and freedom-to-operate, and conducts due diligence investigations. She has significant experience with post-grant and ITC proceedings.
Kiri advises on IP rights relating to medical devices and drug-device combination products, biotech, imaging, printing, control systems, automotive and aircraft technologies, and a wide range of other technologies. She also has an active design patent practice focusing on consumer and industrial goods.
Kiri was previously seconded to a large Japanese company to work with their in-house department on printing technologies. Kiri continues to advise a number of leading companies in Japan.
Before joining Foley, Kiri worked as an engineer for a large multinational corporation. Kiri also worked as an undergraduate research fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. During law school, Kiri was a judicial intern for the Honorable Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Community Involvement
- Member, Young Lawyer’s Alliance of the Legal Counsel for the Elderly in Washington, D.C.
Presentations and Publications
- “Limitations In Seeking Trade Dress With Patent Protection,” Law360 (August 15, 2023)
- “How Rights Owners Can Be Proactive With CBP Enforcement,” Law360 (August 7, 2023)
- “Statistics, Trends, and Developments in Popular U.S. Patent Litigation Jurisdictions,” Japan Intellectual Property Association (May 25, 2023)
- “Understanding IP Protections and Anti-Counterfeiting Assurances for Cosmetics,” 10th Annual Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance Forum on Cosmetics & Personal Care Products (March 26, 2023)
- IP Case Law Year in Review, Foley & Lardner Presentation (March 4, 2022)
- “Design Patent Litigation – Selected 2020 Cases,” Foley & Lardner Presentation (April 23, 2021)
- Winning in the Unknown – U.S. Intellectual Property Development Seminar Series, “Patent Counseling Trends and Patent Prosecution Tips” (February 17, 2021)
- “Design Patents Protected at the Border – Proposed Legislation Authorizes U.S. Customs to Seize Goods Infringing Patented Designs,” Manufacturing Industry Advisor (July 14, 2020)
- 2019 Patent Year in Review, Foley & Lardner Presentation (January 30, 2020)
- “Duty of Disclosure, Inequitable Conduct and Information Disclosure Statements,” Japan Intellectual Property Association (November 5, 2019)
- “PHM Cost and Return on Investment,” Ch. 9, Prognostics and Health Management of Electronics: Fundamentals, Machine Learning, and the Internet of Things, pp. 221-260 (Willey, 2018)
- “Timing Is Everything: Successful Joinder Motions at the PTAB,” PTAB Trial Insights (October 19, 2016)
- “IPR Proactive Defense Measures – Strategies And Considerations For Patent Owners,” The National Law Review (May 31, 2016)
- “DOJ Files IPR Petitions Against Discovery Patents,” PTAB Trial Insights (May 17, 2016)
- “Denying Prior Art Status In PTAB Proceedings: Petitioner’s Failure to Show Section 112 Support in Priority Applications May Be Fatal,” PTAB Trial Insights (January 15, 2016)
- “A methodology for determining the return on investment associated with prognostics and health management,” IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 58, pp. 305-316 (June 2009)
- “Cost analysis of prognostic health management,” Prognostic and Health Management of Electronics, Ed. M. G. Pecht, J. Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, pp. 85-118 (2008)
- “Life cycle cost estimation of using prognostic health management for helicopter avionics,” Microelectronics Reliability, 47, pp. 1857-1864 (December 2007)
- “Integrating technology obsolescence considerations into product design planning,” co-author, Proceedings of the 12th ASME Design for Manufacturing and Life Cycle Conference, pp. 981-988 (September 2007)
