N. Meredith Porembski, J.D., Ph.D.
Shareholder
Email: mporembski@bellmanning.com
Phone: (608) 661-3593
Meredith has over 16 years of experience as a patent attorney. Prior to joining Bell & Manning, LLC, Meredith was an associate with Foley & Lardner, LLP, where she worked for two and a half years. During law school, Meredith clerked for Judge Barbara B. Crabb, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
Education
- University of Wisconsin Law School, J.D., 2007
- Magna Cum Laude
- Order of the Coif
- Order of the Coif
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, 2001
- Carleton College, B.A., Chemistry, 1996
- Magna Cum Laude
Admissions
Registered Patent Attorney, U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
State Bar of Wisconsin
Legal Experience
Meredith has written and prosecuted patent applications in a wide variety of chemical and materials science areas. These include patent applications related to materials used in devices (and the devices themselves) such as solar cells, solid state lasers, fuel cells, batteries, thin film electronics, photodetectors, and time-of-flight cameras. The types of materials (including nanoscale materials) have included semiconductors, metals, metal alloys, polymers, and magnetic/ferromagnetic materials.
Meredith has written and prosecuted patent applications related to the techniques of microscopy, spectroscopy, optics, and thin film deposition techniques such as atomic layer deposition, vapor phase epitaxy, and plasma deposition.
Meredith has also written and prosecuted patent applications related to detergent compositions, infrared interferometers, and microfluidic devices.
As examples, Meredith wrote and prosecuted the applications/patents listed below:
Materials and Related Devices
- U.S. Pat. No. 7,754,351, Epitaxial (001) BiFeO3 Membranes with Substantially Reduced Fatigue and Leakage.
- U.S. Pat. No. 8,029,902, Plasma-Enhanced Functionalization of Substrate Surfaces with Quaternary Ammonium and Quaternary Phosphonium Groups.
- U.S. Pat. No. 8,093,117, Metal Oxides Having Molecular or Biomolecular Functionalization.
- U.S. Pat. No. 8,164,092, PIN Structures Including Intrinsic Gallium Arsenide, Devices Incorporating the Same, and Related Methods.
- U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20140203826, Functionalized ZnO or ZnO alloy films exhibiting high electron mobility.
- U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20130337636, Carbon doping of gallium arsenide via hydride vapor phase epitaxy.
- U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20140339505, Virtual substrates by having thick, highly relaxed metamorphic buffer layer structures by hydride vapor phase epitaxy.
- PCT Pub. No. WO 2014026099, Ultrathin group II-VI semiconductor layers, group II-VI semiconductor superlattice structures, photovoltaic devices incorporating the same, and related methods.
Nanoscale Materials and Related Devices
- U.S. Pat. No. 7,804,149, Nanostructured ZnO electrodes for efficient dye sensitized solar cells.
- U.S. Pat. No. 8,491,999, Metal-coated vertically aligned carbon nanofibers.
- PCT Pub. No. WO 2014105710, Integrated photovoltaic-battery device and related methods.
Solid State Lasers
- U.S. Pat. No. 8,325,774, High power, high efficiency quantum cascade lasers with reduced electron leakage.
- U.S. Pat. No. 8,792,528, Semiconductor microtube lasers.
- U.S. Pat. No. 8,848,754, Multiquantum well structures for suppression of electron leakage and reduction of threshold-current density in quantum cascade lasers.
- U.S. Pat. No. 8,879,595, Quantum cascade structures on metamorphic buffer layer structures.
Spectroscopy/Optics
- PCT Pub. No. WO 2010144081, Apparatus for raman spectroscopy having an optical fiber probe.
- U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20120293860, Internal reflection elements having increased energy throughput for attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy.
- PCT Pub. No. WO 2012148905, Polymeric solar concentrator and solar thermal device incorporating same.
- U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20150092190, Triple sum frequency coherent multidimensional imaging.
In addition to preparing and prosecuting patent applications, Meredith has extensive experience in the following areas:
- Counseling clients on legal and strategic issues relating to their intellectual property, including conducting patent portfolio reviews and patentability assessments of invention disclosures
- Managing both U.S. and international patent portfolios
- Preparing appeals
- Preparing non-infringement and invalidity opinions
- Conducting freedom-to-operate, due diligence, and patent landscape analyses
- Conducting inventorship analyses and handling inventorship disputes
Publications and Presentations as an Attorney
Protecting Your Patentable Inventions: Avoiding Harmful Public Disclosures and Creating Helpful Invention Disclosures, Presentation at PIKE Technologies, Madison, WI, December 2013.
Industry-University Collaborations, Presentation at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Verona, WI, September 2013.
Patenting Nanotechnology and U.S. Patent Reform, Technology Commercialization Office at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, October 2011 (talk).
Technical Experience
Before attending law school, Meredith worked as a senior scientist with Pharmaceutical Analytical Development PPD, Inc., where she developed, validated, and transferred assay and impurity methods for drug substances and products using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS).
Meredith also was a postdoctoral research associate in biophysical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she developed a microscopy system to study the interactions of single proteins and DNA. Relevant technical expertise includes single molecule fluorescence microscopy and biochemical techniques for the labeling and manipulating proteins and DNA.
Meredith also was a doctoral research associate in physical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying the reaction mechanisms of transition metals with hydrocarbons using gas-phase laser photoionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry and theoretical calculations. As a doctoral student, Meredith completed coursework in quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, organometallic chemistry, spectroscopy and molecular reaction dynamics.
Publications and Presentations as a Scientist
Single Biomolecules in Motion, Biopharmaceutical Research Talks, PPD, Inc.,
July 2002 (talk).
Kinetics and Mechanism of the Reactions of Ground-State Y (4d15s2, 2D) with Ethylene and Propylene: Experiment and Theory, Porembski, M.; Weisshaar, J.C., J. Phys. Chem. A. 105, 6655 (2001).
Singlet and Triplet Reaction Paths for Gas-Phase Zr + C2H4 by Density Functional Theory, Porembski, M.; Weisshaar, J.C., J. Phys. Chem. A. 105, 4851 (2001).
Kinetics and Mechanism of the Gas-Phase Reactions of Y and Zr with Alkenes: Experimental and Theoretical Studies, Slifkin Excellence Awards for Outstanding Accomplishments, May 2001 (talk).
Kinetics and Mechanism of the Gas-Phase Reactions of Y and Zr with Alkenes: Experimental and Theoretical Studies, Gordon Conference on Gaseous Ions: Structures, Energetics, and Reactions, February 2001 (poster).
Deuterium Isotope Effects on Reaction Rates of Ground State Zr with Ethylene and Propylene, Porembski, M.; Weisshaar, J.C., J. Phys. Chem. A. 104, 1524 (2000).
Gas-Phase Reaction Kinetics and Products of Neutral Transition Metal + Hydrocarbon via UV-Photoionization/TOF-MS, Gordon Conference on Gaseous Ions: Structures, Energetics, and Reactions, February 1999 (poster).
H2 Elimination Products from Neutral Zr + Alkene Reactions in the Gas Phase, Wen, Y.; Porembski, M.; Ferrett, T.A.; Weisshaar, J.C., J. Phys. Chem. A. 102, 8362 (1998).
Excited-State Kinetics of Neutral Transition Metal Atoms by Stimulated Emission Pumping: Reactions of V* and Mo* with Hydrocarbons, Conference on the Dynamics of Molecular Collisions, July 1997 (poster).
Professional Associations
American Bar Association
Wisconsin Bar Association