Attorney Joe Bird

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings L.L.P. - Birmingham, AL

Joe Bird is a registered patent attorney and combines an active patent prosecution practice with technology- and science-related litigation. He attended UAB’s graduate program in Vision Science and completed the coursework for an M.S. Degree. Vision Science at UAB is a combination of neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, physiological optics and biochemistry and genetics.

He has obtained and worked on numerous patents and related IP matters including licensing, trademarks, copyrights and noncompetition covenants. Patent prosecution experience includes optical devices, software and manufacturing processes, cognitive neuroscience inventions, neurotechnology, biotechnology and sundry mechanical devices. He also has significant expertise in the determination of patentable subject matter in software and other process patents including neurotechnology. He also has significant experience in patent litigation. With these experiences, Joe can add value to virtually any litigation or IP matter, and his cross-training in these areas makes him more valuable to clients in both areas.

He has a significant knowledge base in neuroscience having studied at the graduate level and having worked on national counsel teams defending pharmaceutical companies in litigation in which plaintiffs allege neurological and neurodevelopmental injuries. Joe has been lead national counsel for Bayer Healthcare in developing experts and the proximate causation defense in litigation alleging Thimerosal containing immune globulins caused Autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. This is part of the larger litigation involving alleging Vaccines cause Autism.

Joe has also tried more than 30 cases to final verdict in state and federal courts, approximately half of those being jury cases and many of the others being competitive disputes in which preliminary injunctions were tried nonjury and converted to a final judgment. Complex commercial, trade secret and product liability cases round out his trial experience. Other significant litigation matters as lead counsel resolved successfully before trial include a complex set of commercial and environmental disputes arising out of Ford Motor Company’s sale of its former Sheffield aluminum casting plant. The purchaser and local municipalities were the parties adverse to Ford. The Ford Sheffield matter also included approximately 2500 individual plaintiff claims alleging personal injuries from contamination and around Ford’s former facility. Joe was lead counsel and heavily involved in all aspects of these matters over almost six years including discovery and motion practice, and settlement negotiation.

Attorney Brie L.B. Buchanan

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings L.L.P. - Birmingham, AL

Ms. Buchanan practices in all areas of intellectual property, including copyright, trademark, trade secrets, and related business matters, with a primary focus on patent litigation. Prior to joining Bradley Arant Boult Cummings’ Birmingham office in 2011, Ms. Buchanan was an associate in the IP Litigation group of Alston & Bird in Atlanta, Georgia, where she primarily represented various clients in patent infringement matters in federal district courts and before the International Trade Commission.

Ms. Buchanan attended Vanderbilt University Law School as an honor scholar. While attending Vanderbilt, Ms. Buchanan received the Cortner Award for winning Vanderbilt’s Moot Court Competition and also received the Best Brief Award. As a Moot Court board member, she served as an associate justice on the managing council. Ms. Buchanan also served as authorities editor for the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law and as a teaching assistant for a first-year legal writing and research course.

Ms. Buchanan received her B.S. in industrial engineering from the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Northwestern University.

Ms. Buchanan is a member of the Georgia Bar and the Patent Bar (USPTO).

Attorney David W. Holt

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, L.L.P. - Birmingham, AL

David graduated summa cum laude from the University of Alabama School of Law. During law school, he served as the Editor in Chief of the Alabama Law Review. David also holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama. David is licensed to practice law in the State of Alabama and before the United States Patent Office.

In addition to his involvement with various litigation matters, David routinely assists clients in all manners of intellectual property, including prosecution, litigation, and licensing. David's broad IP experience includes matters concerning patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets; and, David frequently practices before the United States Patent and Trademark and Copyright Offices on behalf of his clients.

David is a member of the American Bar Association Intellectual Property Law Section, DRI, and American Institute of Chemical Engineers - Chemical Engineering and the Law Forum. David also serves on the University of Alabama Department of Chemical Engineering Advisory Board.

Attorney Linda A. Friedman

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, L.L.P. - Birmingham, AL

Linda has over 30 years experience in the field of intellectual property, including advising, licensing, litigating and other forms of resolving disputes, negotiating, securing registrations and other methods for protecting clients’ intellectual property. For over fifteen years she has been named in The Best Lawyers in America in Intellectual Property law and since 2007 she has been named in The Best Lawyers in the category of Franchise Law. She is also named in Alabama Super Lawyers in Intellectual Property. In recent months, Linda has participated on a committee appointed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to prepare model jury charges in copyright litigation. She is a past chair of the Alabama Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust and Business Torts and has been active in other organizations, including the International Trademark Association. She has lectured frequently about trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets.

Linda also has written articles and contributed to treatises in the field of intellectual property, including an article in The Alabama Lawyer regarding Alabama’s new trademark statute which became effective January 1, 2011 and a chapter on Alabama law in the treatise State Trademark & Unfair Competition, published by the International Trademark Association in 1991 and updated annually.

Linda received her J.D. degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law where she served as an associate editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Upon graduation from law school, Linda served as a law clerk to former federal judge Sam C. Pointer, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Linda has defended as well as prosecuted intellectual property cases in federal district court, handled appeals to the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeal and represented clients in the United States Trademark Office as well as before the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

Attorney Paul Sykes

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, L.L.P. - Birmingham, AL

Paul Sykes represents businesses and individuals in a wide variety of intellectual property and technology-related legal matters. As a member of both the Intellectual Property and Competitive Practices and the Litigation Practice Groups, Paul counsels clients in the acquisition, licensing and protection of intellectual property rights, and he litigates those rights in the state and federal courts. Paul has been peer-selected for inclusion in the Best Lawyer's in America and Alabama Super Lawyers in Intellectual Property Law. Birmingham Magazine recently listed him as a “Top Attorney” for Intellectual Property.

Paul focuses his practice on patent, copyright, trademark, unfair competition, and trade secret litigation. As a former computer engineer, Paul understands technology and how to use it for the benefit of the client. As a registered patent attorney, Paul prepares and prosecutes patent applications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He also counsels clients generally in the areas of copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. He currently serves as president of the Intellectual Property Section of the Alabama State Bar.