Skip to content
  • Home
  • Professionals
    • Attorneys
    • Paralegals
  • Services
  • Industries
  • News & Insights
  • About
    • Firm Overview
    • Community
    • Inclusion
    • Alumni
    • Contact Us
  • Careers
    • Careers Overview
    • Law Students
    • Attorneys
    • Staff
  • Locations

Rutan & Tucker, LLP

  • Professionals

    Find an Attorney

    Looking for a paralegal? See our paralegals.

  • Services
    • All Services
    • Corporate and Tax
      • Commercial Finance
      • Corporate Finance
      • Corporate Governance
      • Corporate Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights
      • Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Securities
      • Tax
    • Employment
      • Employee Handbooks and Transactional Documents
      • Employment Litigation and Government Agency Proceedings
      • Employment Practices Counseling
    • Government and Regulatory
      • Municipal Law General and Special
      • Land Use and Natural Resources
      • Government Relations and Political
      • Affordable Housing and Economic Development
      • Condemnation and Property Valuation
      • Education
      • Environmental
      • Public Labor and Employment
      • Water
    • Intellectual Property
      • Copyrights
      • Licensing
      • Patents
      • Trade Dress
      • Trademarks
      • Privacy and Technology
    • Land Use and Entitlement
      • Election Law
    • Litigation and Trial
      • Business and Commercial Litigation
      • Construction
      • Corporate Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights
      • Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships (P3)
      • Insurance and Dispute Recovery
      • Intellectual Property Litigation
      • Real Property Litigation
      • Unfair Competition and Class Action Defense Group
    • Real Estate
      • Acquisitions and Dispositions
      • Affordable Housing and Economic Development
      • Construction
      • Joint Ventures
      • Land Use and Natural Resources
      • Leasing
      • Real Property Secured Lending
      • Tax
  • Industries
  • News & Insights
  • About
    • Firm Overview
    • Community
    • Inclusion
    • Alumni
    • Careers
    • Locations
    • Contact Us
Print Page  |  Share Page
Ferrill Tom Bio 1

Tom Ferrill

Partner
Intellectual Property
Palo Alto
(650) 320-1508
Download a Vcard for Tom Ferrill Download vCard
Download a PDF profile for Tom Ferrill
Download PDF Profile
Follow Tom Ferrill on LinkedIn Follow on LinkedIn
Email Tom Ferrill Email
Overview
Experience
Awards & Affiliations

Services

  • Intellectual Property
  • Copyrights
  • Intellectual Property Litigation
  • Licensing
  • Life Sciences
  • Patents
  • Trademarks

Related Industries

  • Automotive
  • Technology
  • Cybersecurity
  • Hardware
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Life Sciences and Healthcare
  • Medical Devices
  • Software
  • Physical Sciences

Bar & Court Admissions

  • State Bar of California
  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Education

  • John Marshall Law School (J.D., 2000), with honors
  • Illinois State University (B.S., 1996), Dean's List
  • Naval Nuclear Power School (1986),Top in Class
Overview
+

Tom Ferrill counsels companies in all areas of Intellectual Property including Patents, Trade Secrets, Copyrights and Trade Marks. Tom’s practice includes drafting patent applications to protect a company’s technology, including how to properly draft a patent for a startup company. He counsels clients in mining and identifying important patentable inventions. Some examples of Tom’s previous startup clients include Autonomy Corp., which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard Co. for almost $11 billion, and Pure Digital Technologies, which was acquired by Cisco for $590 million, according to CNET. He is a registered patent attorney who has been drafting software, mechanical, and chemical patents since 1997.

Tom graduated in the top of his class with honors from one of the nation’s top Intellectual Property law schools. He served as an external law clerk for federal district court judge. He has experience as both an IP litigator as well as an IP business attorney and has over ten years of experience working as an Electrical Engineer and Nuclear Reactor Operator prior to becoming a patent attorney. Tom worked as an electrical engineer for companies such as the pharmaceutical company – Abbott Laboratories, the electrical power generation company – Illinois Power, the U.S. Navy onboard a nuclear-powered submarine, and a small startup Printed-Circuit-Board manufacturing company. His experience combines a vast knowledge of technical expertise, industry experience, and in-depth knowledge of Intellectual Property law.

He is an expert in counseling clients on how to strategically develop a patent portfolio and where to file around the world, patent prosecution (in the U.S. as well as directing foreign prosecution in countries outside the US). He has vast experience in analyzing patents for validity and products for non-infringement, providing strategic counseling and support during litigation, drafting licenses for patents, product license agreements, NDA’s, supply agreements, joint development agreements, and any other kind of agreement involving intellectual property. Tom has developed a series of checklists for performing due diligence on Intellectual Property assets of a company for acquisitions and investments in a thorough and efficient manner. He has experience in performing post patent grant review procedures including Reexamination proceedings and Inter Partes Review (IPRs).

Tom enjoys partnering with a client to manage the various range of Intellectual Property issues that occur at a start-up company or mid-sized company. He has drafted patents in the areas of networking (including Internet applications), software, broadband and wireless communications, computer hardware, most mechanical inventions, search engines, medical devices, Bio-Tech, Clean Tech, Optics, integrated circuits, energy systems, and on most variants of electrical/electronic technologies just to name a few.

Experience
+
Areas of Focus
  • Intellectual Property/Technology
Awards & Affiliations
+
Memberships & Associations
  • American Bar Association
  • Cupertino-Sunnyvale Bar Association
  • Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Association (SVIPLA)
  • American Intellectual Property Law Association
  • The Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE)
  • The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) organization
Mansfield Certification Badge Color Arabella 2022 2023 V1 500x500
2025 Best Law Firms Standard Badge
2024 Am Law
2024 Chambers Firm Logo (2)

Resources

  • News & Insights
  • Legal Resources

Connect

  • Contact Us
  • Locations
facebook linkedin
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
  • Cookie Notice
Copyright 2025 Rutan & Tucker, LLP. All rights reserved.
Built By 434 Marketing