Practice Areas
- Intellectual Property Litigation
- Intellectual Property Strategic Counseling
- Litigation
- PTAB Proceedings
- Semiconductor
- Trademark and Trade Dress Litigation
Admissions
- Arizona
- U.S. District Court of Arizona
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
Rowan P. Smith
Partner
Phone: 602.457.5225
Email: rsmith@messner.com
Office: Phoenix
Rowan Smith is an experienced intellectual property attorney who provides thoughtful legal counseling and business advice to assist clients in maximizing the value of their intellectual assets. His transactional intellectual property law practice includes patent prosecution, copyright and trademark registration, licensing, and technology-related transactions. He regularly works with clients of all sizes, including multinational companies, non-profit organizations, and sole inventors, to develop business-driven strategies for effectively and efficiently protecting his clients’ valuable intellectual property assets.
With a robust technical background in electrical engineering and computer science, Rowan is uniquely positioned to guide inventors in securing patents across a wide range of technologies. His expertise extends to patent and technology counseling, where he offers insight on potential conflicts and licensing matters. Rowan is also well-versed in post-issuance matters, including IPR proceedings.
In addition to his patent expertise, Rowan is well-equipped to support clients in non-patent situations. This includes registering and protecting copyrights, filing and prosecuting trademark applications, technology licensing, and protecting trade secrets.
Rowan’s pre-law school experience working as a software engineer for Honeywell’s Laboratory Services and Integrated Testing Center gave him a strong background in technology. There, he developed technologies to assist in the manufacturing and testing of jet engines.
Representative Technologies
Areas of technology where Rowan has drafted and prosecuted patent applications include:
- Analog & Digital Circuit Design
- Asset Tracking and Management Systems
- Data Security Technologies & Cryptography
- eCommerce systems
- Efficient SIP Communication Algorithms
- Enterprise Software Systems
- High-Performance Mechanical Systems
- Low-Power Display Screen Technologies
- Machine Learning and AI Technologies for Content Delivery
- Medical Devices
- Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law (J.D., 2007)
- Arizona State University (B.S.E.E., 2002)
- Major: Electrical Engineering
- 2017 BTI Consulting Group “Client Service All-Star”
- Southwest Super Lawyers® – Rising Stars 2013 (Intellectual Property)
- American Bar Association
- American Intellectual Property Law Association
- Arizona Science Center, Board Trustee
- SciTech Institute, Board Member
- Coordinated patent program strategy and development for a multi-national high-value education technology start-up company that previously had no patent program in place.
- Developed a patent protection program with a research hospital as part of a technology transfer and licensing effort for medical devices and technologies. The program protects ablation catheter devices, spinal support systems, and patient data management systems.
- Worked with a multi-national education technology company to manage their international patent portfolio. Executed invention harvesting processes to meet with engineers, identify and understand newly developed and strategic technologies, and secure protection on the same.
- Assisted a small client with patent filings as part of venture capital funding negotiations.
- Provided in-house intellectual property training for engineers at a large e-commerce transaction company to successfully increase the volume of new invention disclosures.
