Erika Arner

Erika Harmon Arner is a nationally-recognized leader in trial practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and was named 2017 PTAB Litigator of the Year by Managing IP. She represents clients before the Federal Circuit, where she has argued and won appeals from the PTAB and district courts in technologies ranging from graphical user interfaces to complex telecommunications systems to large scale scent diffusion devices.

Erika focuses on patent office trials, client counseling, and litigation, with an emphasis on electronic technology, computer software, and the Internet. She has represented patent owners and petitioners in more than 100 PTAB trials, most as lead counsel. She currently serves as past-president of the PTAB Bar Association.

Erika has also argued and won appeals from PTAB trials to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, many of which involve issues of first impression in this emerging area of patent law. She has also successfully defended district court decisions on appeal at the Federal Circuit.

In addition to her extensive experience in patent office and appellate practice, Erika is a well-known authority in the area of patent-eligibility jurisprudence. Since representing the petitioners before the U.S. Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos, she has handled dozens of cases involving issues related to patentable subject matter before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, U.S. district courts, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Erika advises clients on patent strategy, portfolio management and licensing, and patent prosecution. She is a frequent author and lecturer on business method and computer-related patents and practice before the PTAB.

Erika serves as an editor for Finnegan’s AIA blog on PTAB trials and AIA provisions. She is a coeditor of The Practitioner’s Guide to Trials Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, American Bar Association, Section of Intellectual Property Law, 2014, and the Second Edition that was published in 2016.

Over her career, Erika has gained recognition for her patent prosecution and post-grant procedure practices, as well as IP litigation, by leading publications, including Intellectual Asset Management and Managing IP. She has been named one of the “Top 250 Women in IP.”

Education :

• Washington and Lee University School of Law J.D., cum laude, 1999
• College of William and Mary B.S., Computer Science, 1993

Admissions :

• District of Columbia
• Virginia
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
• Supreme Court of the United States
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Professional Activities :

• PTAB Bar Association (president, 2018-2019; president-elect, 2016-2017)
• Intellectual Property Owners Association (vice chair, U.S. Post-Grant Patent Office Practice, 2016-2017; vice chair, Patent Office Practice Committee, 2012-2014; vice chair, Software and Business Method Patents Committee, 2009-2011)
• American Bar Association (Mark T. Banner awards committee, 2016-2017; patents editor, Landslide magazine, 2012-2015; lead patents editor, Annual Review of Intellectual Property Developments, 2010-2012)
• Virginia State Bar (Intellectual Property Section Board of Governors, 2013-2015)
• American Intellectual Property Law Association (Amicus Brief Committee; Professional Programs Committee, 2014-2015)