Ms. Barnes is a senior associate in the firm’s Intellectual Property Section focused on patent prosecution and Intellectual Property associated transactional endeavors. Ms. Barnes is proficient in patent prosecution for a wide variety of technologies, including electronic devices, computer hardware and software, networking systems and protocols, green technologies, and mechanical devices, including medical devices. She also has experience with intellectual property strategic planning, intellectual property-related due diligence for mergers and acquisitions, freedom to operate opinions, and patent infringement and validity opinions.
Ms. Barnes currently advises a large international medical device company on its intellectual property strategy, including creating and maintaining a foreign and domestic patent portfolio; offensive and defensive opinions regarding infringement, freedom to operate, and patentability; as well as assessing the intellectual property assets of potential acquisitions. She has prosecuted a large number of patents protecting stents, catheters, catheter placement systems, needle safety devices, ultrasound devices, urological slings, and other implants and delivery systems.
She has also counseled small businesses and start-ups on intellectual property strategy and portfolio planning to protect an emerging market share or to retain and maximize intellectual property rights in view of joint venture research and development, and government grants. She has prosecuted a number of patents for these companies covering various technologies, such as storage area networks, remote access security and devices, beverage dispensers and holders, clean energy wood burning furnaces, pyrolysis systems, ratcheting pulleys, laser testing devices, and mirrors.
Before coming to Rutan & Tucker, LLP, Ms. Barnes was an associate at Morrison Foerster litigating and prosecuting patents for large companies involving toys, storage area networks, medical devices, dvd technologies, cell phones, and computer hardware interfaces including touch screens. Prior to law school, Ms. Barnes instructed at the Colorado School of Mines’ Physics Department. As an adjunct professor, she taught undergraduate physics courses in mechanics and electromagnetism. She was also a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the opto-electronics department.
Graduating first in her class, Ms. Barnes received her law degree from Loyola Law School in 2007, magna cum laude. She was awarded the J. Rex Dibble Honor Award for Academic Achievement and the ALI-ABA Scholarship & Leadership Award, and is a member of the Order of the Coif. Ms. Barnes graduated with high scholastic honors in 2001 from Colorado School of Mines. She achieved her B.S. degree in Engineering Physics, and earned minors in Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering.
Recent Publications
- "American Invents Act - Now What?" OC Lawyer (March 2013)
Recent Presentations
- "Intellectual Property Strategies: Managing the Risks and Seizing the Opportunities," Wyndam Hotel, Costa Mesa (April 2013)
- "Legal Issues for SBIR/STTR: Intellectual Property, Contracts, and Licensing," for the SBIR/STTR Grant Development Series, OCTANe and UCI’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering, Irvine, CA (April 10, 2013)