Melissa draws on 17 years of in-house experience with a multinational Fortune 500 company to advise clients on a holistic intellectual property strategy to harvest, develop, and leverage IP assets.
A business-focused intellectual property attorney, Melissa assists clients at all stages of the innovation life cycle, including early stage ideation, piloting and testing, and scaling. Melissa has significant experience in traditional patent preparation and prosecution matters and portfolio management—however, her main goal is to ensure that clients’ IP strategies match their business plans and business needs. With a strong belief that IP counsel must work hand-in-hand with business stakeholders, she advises clients on which technologies and innovations to protect, and how best to protect them. Melissa always seeks to understand the business strategy behind a product initiative, in order to develop IP assets that drive sustainable competitive advantage for the client’s business. She has secured patents and managed portfolios for a wide range of products and technologies, including chemistry, sustainable solutions, biotechnology, life sciences, medical devices, assembled products, packaging, consumer goods, engineering, manufacturing, and software, with a current focus on chemical patents and manufactured consumer products.
As a student, Melissa was always drawn to science but knew that she didn’t want to devote her career to scientific research. IP law was an opportunity to combine her love of science, technology, language, and communication, letting her serve as a bridge between scientists, engineers, and inventors and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. After beginning her career in patent preparation and prosecution at a law firm, she accepted an in-house role with Procter & Gamble, leading global IP support for various product divisions. Melissa’s responsibilities included IP support for the entrepreneurial ventures division, where she learned to work at the fast pace of startup companies while juggling a wide variety of technologies.
In 2024, Melissa joined Husch Blackwell in order to have a broader strategic impact on a wider range of clients. Her 17 years at Procter & Gamble mean that she understands how to communicate with in-house counsel and how to work within budget. Melissa is personally familiar with the top concerns of in-house counsel, and she knows how to get to the root of what clients truly need most. Her goal is always to bring clients business-minded solutions, not legalistic complexity, and she ensures that clients leave a meeting or a conversation with her less stressed, knowing that their innovations are effectively and strategically protected, so that they can focus on growing their business.