Biography
Vera Suarez is a registered patent attorney and partner in the Dallas office. As a patent and trade secret strategist, she counsels her clients on maximizing their ROI on IP spend while minimizing IP risk exposure. Not only does she develop and manage patent portfolios in a wide variety of technology areas, but she also advises clients with respect to patent validity, freedom to operate, product clearance, and preparing IP portfolios for acquisition. Vera also helps establish best practice policies relating to patent and trade secret protection, with a focus on policies that help close the innovation gender gap.
When advising her clients, Vera often relies on her engineering experience, which includes working on an offshore oil rig off the coast of Mexico and performing a countless number of risk management analysis as a field engineer. She is a trusted advisor to her clients and was recently included in the "Ones to Watch" category of The Best Lawyers in America, (Woodward/White, Inc., 2023). She was also lead patent attorney in a Federal Circuit case that overturned US Patent Office precedent and was recognized among the biggest patent cases in 2021 (Law 360).
Vera has held a variety of leadership positions within the firm. She is currently co-chair of the firm’s Attorney Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, but has chaired a number of other committees as well as helped create Haynes Boone’s national “Patent Prosecution Training Program.”
Some of Vera’s experience includes technologies relating to:
- food and snack products;
- computer software, including artificial intelligence (AI), analytic algorithms, and graphical user interfaces (GUIs);
- mechanical devices, including upper and lower downhole completion systems, manufacturing equipment, electrical fittings and seals, pumping components, and fluid monitoring systems;
- medical devices, including stents, periocular devices, body-mountable monitoring devices, syringes, auto-injectors, and biofluid pumps; and
- garments and accessories such as nursing bras, handbags, and jeans.
Vera Suarez is a registered patent attorney and partner in the Dallas office. As a patent and trade secret strategist, she counsels her clients on maximizing their ROI on IP spend while minimizing IP risk exposure. Not only does she develop and manage patent portfolios in a wide variety of technology areas, but she also advises clients with respect to patent validity, freedom to operate, product clearance, and preparing IP portfolios for acquisition. Vera also helps establish best practice policies relating to patent and trade secret protection, with a focus on policies that help close the innovation gender gap.
When advising her clients, Vera often relies on her engineering experience, which includes working on an offshore oil rig off the coast of Mexico and performing a countless number of risk management analysis as a field engineer. She is a trusted advisor to her clients and was recently included in the "Ones to Watch" category of The Best Lawyers in America, (Woodward/White, Inc., 2023). She was also lead patent attorney in a Federal Circuit case that overturned US Patent Office precedent and was recognized among the biggest patent cases in 2021 (Law 360).
Vera has held a variety of leadership positions within the firm. She is currently co-chair of the firm’s Attorney Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, but has chaired a number of other committees as well as helped create Haynes Boone’s national “Patent Prosecution Training Program.”
Some of Vera’s experience includes technologies relating to:
- food and snack products;
- computer software, including artificial intelligence (AI), analytic algorithms, and graphical user interfaces (GUIs);
- mechanical devices, including upper and lower downhole completion systems, manufacturing equipment, electrical fittings and seals, pumping components, and fluid monitoring systems;
- medical devices, including stents, periocular devices, body-mountable monitoring devices, syringes, auto-injectors, and biofluid pumps; and
- garments and accessories such as nursing bras, handbags, and jeans.
- Represented SurgiSil at the Federal Circuit and successfully argued for a reversal of a design patent claim rejection, which also overturned Patent Office precedent.
- Dallas Bar Association
- The Honorable Barbara M.G. Lynn American Inn of Court, Student Member, 2011-2012
- Recognized as a WIPR Diversity Champion in the World Intellectual Property Review Diversity Top 100 List, 2024
- Included in the "Ones to Watch" category of The Best Lawyers in America, Woodward/White, Inc., Intellectual Property Law, 2023-2025; Patent Law, 2024-2025
- Listed in World IP Review Leaders Directory, Newton Media Ltd., 2024
- "How Lip Implant Ruling Has Affected Design Patent Disputes," co-author, Law360, April 14, 2023.
- "A Discussion on Design Patents," speaker, NAWL Women in Intellectual Property & Tech Law, December 7, 2021.
- "Design Patents – Latest from Federal Circuit on Claim Scope and its Effects," co-speaker, DBA Intellectual Property Section CLE, December 2, 2021.
- "Federal Circuit Narrows the Scope of Design Patent Claims," author, The Patent Lawyer, November 9, 2021.
- "Federal Circuit Tells Patent Office to Limit Scope of Design Patents, Overturning Patent Office Precedent," co-author, Haynes Boone IP Beacon blog, October 11, 2021.
- "Lawyers Hail USPTO’s Bid to Resolve Patent Eligibility Muddle," interview, World IP Review, July 14, 2021.
- "Fed. Circ. Simio Patent Eligibility Ruling May Affect Alice Test," author, Law360, February 09, 2021.
- "Logos and the Ordinary Observer Test," co-author, Haynes Boone IP Beacon blog, November 22, 2019.
- "Berkheimer and 35 U.S.C. §101," presenter, CLE presentation, December 6, 2018.
- "How Law Firms are Helping Their New Attorneys Succeed," speaker, Texas A&M School of Law Post-Graduation Support Series, Fort Worth, Texas, February 12, 2018.
- "Recent Developments in Intellectual Property Practice," presenter, Intellectual Property Panel Discussion with Haynes and Boone, Dallas, Texas, November 1, 2017.
- "Intellectual Property Law," author, SMU Law Review, 2014.
Education
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Oklahoma State University, 2004
J.D., Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, 2011, cum laude; SMU International Law Review Association, Articles Editor
Clerkships
Intern to the Honorable Judge Amos Mazzant, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Texas
Intern to the Honorable Judge A. Joe Fish, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas
Admissions
Texas
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Court Admissions
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Haynes Boone served as lead counsel for Patent Owner Nabors Drilling Technologies in Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Company et al. v. Nabors Drilling Technologies USA, Inc., IPR2021-00897. Haynes Boone persuaded the PTAB to deny institution of trial for Petitioner’s validity challenges to [...]
Haynes Boone represented SurgiSil at the Federal Circuit and successfully argued for a reversal of a design patent claim rejection, which also overturned Patent Office precedent.
Defended HRsmart and its customers against GeoTag in a major patent infringement case in the Eastern District of Texas involving job locater technology against hundreds of defendants and successfully negotiated a settlement after months of litigation.
