
Kiri Lee Sharon
Partner
Kiri Lee Sharon counsels clients on intellectual property matters throughout the IP lifecycle, 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 start-ups, 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 also 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)

Navigating Clean Beauty: Fine Lines and Wrinkles with Regulatory and IP Strategies
Kiri Lee Sharon Co-Authors Article on Cosmetics IP Considerations in Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong

Limitations In Seeking Trade Dress With Patent Protection
