We are pleased to welcome Jamaica Potts Szeliga to the firm’s Washington D.C. office as a Partner in the Intellectual Property practice.
With more than 20 years of experience, Ms. Szeliga prosecutes, manages, and oversees global patent portfolios in addition to litigating patent and trade secret matters and providing counseling, opinion, and IP transactional services. Her clients range from international conglomerates to first-time inventors.
A registered Patent Attorney, Ms. Szeliga prosecutes patent applications in both the U.S. and abroad in a variety of technology areas. One focus is in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and other health-related industries, where Ms. Szeliga has pursued patents for clients relating to, e.g., gene editing, antibody therapies, digital health, medical devices and diagnostics, and supplements. Other key areas include consumer goods and fashion, with Ms. Szeliga prosecuting both utility and design patents in those fields.
As part of her practice, Ms. Szeliga also performs comprehensive IP audits, which evaluate how a company identifies patentable inventions and trade secrets and how those assets are protected. She advises on maximizing invention “capture,” improving patent strategy, strengthening trade secret controls, and also trains and coaches employees on IP issues.
Ms. Szeliga regularly provides freedom-to-operate and invalidity assessments, and drafts IP-related contracts and contract provisions such as those relating to licensing, co-development, confidentiality, and mergers and acquisitions. She further is an accomplished litigator with experience in patent litigation (both for utility and design patents) and trade secret litigation. A former clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, she has led cases in district courts, in multi-district litigation, before the PTAB (IPRs and PGRs), and in TTAB oppositions, and has argued before the Federal Circuit and the Fourth Circuit. Ms. Szeliga recently obtained her Virginia state mediation certification from the Supreme Court of Virginia, a process requiring almost forty hours of coursework and training.
Prior to joining Potomac Law, Ms. Szeliga was a Partner at Seyfarth Shaw, LLP. She received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and her B.S., with distinction, in Chemistry with a minor in Biology from Stanford University.
