Intellectual Property Culture: Strategy and Compliance

Eric M. Dobrusin is a founding partner of The Dobrusin Law Firm, where he has concentrated his practice in patent counseling and strategic patent prosecution, primarily in the areas of materials science, chemistry, biomedical devices, plastics, automotive technology, and semiconductor device fabrication. He has served as a Special Master in U.S. District Court litigation, and is on the List of Mediators for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva. He is also a former executive director of the National Patent Board.

Ronald A. Krasnow is Sr. Vice President, General Counsel of Relypsa, Inc., in Santa Clara, California, where he is responsible for all legal functions, including corporate, contract, and intellectual property. Previously he spent ten years as the Senior Vice President of intellectual property at Symyx Technologies, also in Santa Clara. He has also worked as a refinery engineer at Marathon Petroleum Company.

Kristen L. Pursley is the managing shareholder of The Dobrusin Law Firm, a Detroit area firm specializing in Intellectual Property. Ms. Pursley graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and received a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Ms. Pursley was previously employed at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in the office of Intellectual Property and Venture Development and as a corporate paralegal at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati in Palo Alto, California. Ms. Pursley is a Past President of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, a Past President of the Women’s Bar Association and a member of the Executive Committee for the Michigan Intellectual Property Inn of Court. She provides pro bono legal services through the Michigan Women's Foundation volunteer network and is a Business Advisory Board Member at the Macomb-OU INCubator. Kristen also sits on the board for the Encore Performing Arts Center which oversees the Flagstar Strand Theater in Pontiac and is the President of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan Foundation. Ms. Pursley represents clients who are tier-one suppliers for the automotive industry, medical diagnostic and device manufacturers, and consumer product and packaging producers. Ms. Pursley was a Crain’s Notable Women Lawyer for 2017, a Michigan Lawyers Weekly 2013 Women in the Law honoree, a SuperLawyers® Rising Star for 2013-2017, a Best Lawyer in Patent Law for 2016-2017, a business Top Lawyer for 2017, and a member of the Oakland County Executive’s 40 Under 40 class of 2015. She is also a recent graduate of Leadership Oakland, and is a Fellow for the State Bar of Michigan Foundation and the Oakland County Bar Foundation.

Daniel P. Aleksynas gained admission to the State Bar of Michigan and the Federal District Court in the Western District of Michigan in June 2008 and is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Aleksynas graduated in 2002 from Western Michigan University College of Engineering with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pulp and Paper Engineering and received a Juris Doctorate Degree cum laude from Thomas M. Cooley School of Law in January 2008. Daniel has extensive experience prosecuting patent applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as well as prosecuting patent applications filed internationally. His practice has a particular emphasis on automotive and medical devices. He represents a broad range of clients from startup companies that are beginning to develop their Intellectual Property to companies that have a well-established Intellectual Portfolio. Daniel serves on the Intellectual Property Organization's Patent Search Committee which he has been an active member on since 2012. Daniel is also a member of the Michigan Intellectual Property Inn of Court, which he has been a member of since it began in 2012.