Lisa M. Schreihart

As a Registered Patent Attorney practicing in the Washington, DC/Maryland area, I'm expanding my reach in intellectual property law both geographically and topically. I serve two law firms specializing in a mix of patent, trademark, and copyright law. As a longtime engineer, I love working with innovators, learning and articulating new technologies, and protecting my clients’ intellectual property. My background is in high tech and patent preparation, prosecution, and protection, including post-grant proceedings such as patent litigation and inter partes reviews. My technology areas include augmented and virtual reality, AI, 5G and other wireless technologies, software, GUIs, semiconductors, optics, autonomous vehicles, audio electronics, medical devices, Internet of Things, blockchain, financial data processing, and other FinTech.

I'm licensed to practice U.S. law in both Maryland and Washington, DC and I'm admitted to practice patent law nationally at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). I was a former patent examiner at the USPTO in Technology Center 3600 (Business Methods), with a specific focus on data processing and cryptography for financial and business practices and management. I am also admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States.

As a first-generation college student, I have always had an insatiable appetite for learning and growing my arsenal of “tools in my toolbox.” I hold a Juris Doctor (magna cum laude) degree from the University of Northern Kentucky Salmon P. Chase College of Law, a Master of Business Administration (High Distinction) degree from the University of Iowa Tippie School of Management, and Bachelor and Master of Electrical Engineering degrees from Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin). I also completed ground school training for a private pilot’s license.

I received my engineering training at Rockwell Collins (now Collins Aerospace of Raytheon Corp), where I was a project engineer and senior avionics systems engineer, working on various advanced military communications systems for air, sea, ground, and handheld applications for Air Force and Naval programs. During my 16 years at Collins, I learned to work successfully and efficiently with teams of engineers from various engineering disciplines to integrate hardware, software, environmental, and human factor aspects of designs.

After 20+ years as an engineer and engineering project manager, I now enjoying growing my legal practice and building a second career serving the legal needs of innovators, the backbone of our society. I thrive in finding synergistic ways to apply my engineering and project management skills to legal challenges that innovators face. My diverse educational and professional experiences provide a variety of tools for approaching challenges in creative ways. 

I strive to improve the intellectual property legal industry through my active involvement as an elected steering committee member of the DC Bar Intellectual Property Law Community. I am a regular volunteer contributor (paper author and reviewer) for various American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) proceedings. I love serving as a volunteer advisor/mentor of entrepreneurs and budding patent practitioners through various organizations, including Patent Pathways, the USPTO, and the Foundation for the Advancement of Diversity in Intellectual Property Law (FADIPL). I also mentor school-aged innovators and IP law enthusiasts, via STEM experiential programs, science fairs, moot court, and Letters to a Pre-Scientist.

My outside passions include umpiring college softball, attending WNBA games, volunteering for social justice organizations, and catching live music concerts and theater of all sorts. I perform improv (on a stage!), and I was a former co-producer of a state-wide music festival in Iowa for many years. I still pull out my sound system to dabble as a sound engineer, stage manager, and stagehand when opportunities arise for non-profit and indie arts organizations.