“Value Over Profitability”: Salima Merani Discusses Knobbe Martens’ Client-Centric Approach in Managing IP Article

In a recent Managing IP article, partner Salima Merani, Ph. D., discussed how Knobbe Martens’ holistic and value-driven approach to client service contributes to the firm’s successful patent prosecution practice.

The article, “How Four Firms Turn a Profit in Patent Prosecution,” looked at challenges to building patent prosecution practices and strategies law firms such as Knobbe Martens adopt to be successful.

Dr. Merani, co-head of Knobbe Martens’ medical device practice, explained how the firm generally works with companies to capture their innovation holistically – rather than taking a piecemeal approach – to facilitate more cost-effective prosecution. For example, in the article she discusses how having knowledge about M&A and IPO activity in clients’ industries helps lawyers understand how global patent portfolios can contribute to successful commercialization, deals, and exits.  She adds, “You have to keep that holistic business aspect in mind.”

Aiding that high-value, strategic approach, Dr. Merani credits the many professionals at Knobbe Martens who are technically trained and hold science, engineering or other technical degrees across an impressively broad spectrum of industries, allowing the firm to take a flexible, team-centered approach that is particularly beneficial in technologies and transactions that overlap multiple sectors.

In the article, Dr. Merani also explained how the firm’s client-centric approach helps the practice succeed, noting that she thinks about prosecution in terms of providing value to the client rather than profitability.

Dr. Merani is a graduate of McGill University and Berkeley Law, serves as an Advisory Board Member with Vensana Capital, and has led IP diligence in deals worth over $5 billion in just the last few years.

Read the full article here (subscription required).