Arien Ferrell, formerly senior patent counsel with Patterson + Sheridan client Intuit Inc., has joined the IP boutique law firm as of counsel in the Houston office. Ferrell will continue to play a major role in leading Intuit’s patent portfolio team in the strategy, development and operations of Intuit’s global patent program, as he did when he was in-house with Intuit, but will work with other Patterson + Sheridan clients as well, helping to grow their global patent portfolios in addition to providing guidance on developing successful innovation protection programs.

Before joining Intuit Inc. in 2005, Arien Ferrell was a patent counsel at Sun Microsystems. Ferrell earned his B.S. in computer science and engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his law degree from Pepperdine University School of Law. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps, attaining the final rank of sergeant, and holds two issued patents himself with two other patent applications pending.

Patterson + Sheridan LLP is an intellectual property law firm with 80 attorneys located in offices in Houston; Dallas; San Diego; San Jose; Greensboro, North Carolina; Shrewsbury, New Jersey; and Yokohama, Japan. The firm celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2016.

Patterson + Sheridan offers a broad range of intellectual property services, including preparing and prosecuting patents, representing clients in litigation, dispute resolution, and post-grant proceedings and actions, and providing counseling and strategic insight to clients in a wide variety of industries. The firm has assisted companies in energy, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, clean technologies, communications technologies, complex software, consumer products, electronics and semiconductor technologies, financial technology and business methods, industrial products, internet-related technologies, medical devices and procedures, nanotechnology and optics.