A trio of technology lawyers who previously practised together at national US IP firm Banner Witcoff has launched a new boutique in Washington DC focused on IP, AI and technology law.
The new firm – named KellDan Law – will offer advice on patent strategy, AI governance, licensing, product development and emerging technology regulation to tech clients. In a statement announcing the launch the firm said it would also buck the traditional billable hour model and provide legal services primarily on a fixed fee and fractional counsel basis.
KellDann was founded by Ross Dannenberg, Scott Kelly and Kirk Sigmon, who were previously partners in Banner Witcoff’s DC office. They will be joined at the start of next month by former Banner Witcoff life sciences partner Paul Rivard.
On LinkedIn Sigmon noted the founding team had more than 70 years of combined legal experience.
“We’re also engineers and former start-up founders, massive video game fans and just as comfortable coding software as we are drafting a legal brief,” Sigmon said. “We’re product counsel, not old-school outside legal counsel. To that end, we’ve also jettisoned the old ways of firms: we’re leveraging technology and AI where sensible, embrace reasonable alternative fee arrangements like fixed fees, and are designed to work from everywhere.”
Alongside its IP services, KellDann will provide legal counsel for companies building, acquiring and deploying AI systems.
“Companies are incorporating AI and advanced technologies into nearly every product they build today,” said Dannenberg, KellDan’s managing partner. “This is generating new legal questions and issues involving IP, product development and data governance. We created KellDann to be a nimble firm that can work alongside founders and product teams to help streamline product development and address those matters quickly and strategically.”
Dannenberg advises on IP procurement, counselling and enforcement, with a particular focus on software and digital technologies. Recognised as an expert on video game law, he practised for nearly 26 years at Banner Witcoff and, in 2015, also founded a video game and software company. He has handled thousands of software patent prosecution matters and has extensive experience in patent, copyright and trademark disputes.
Kelly was an examiner at the USPTO before joining Banner Witcoff in 2013 and advises on issues involving patent validity, infringement and strategic IP portfolio development, as well as the IP issues arising in M&A.
Earlier in his career, he was a software developer and in 2011 founded a company that developed an intelligent patent search engine that was later acquired by a start-up foundry. At KellDan he will serve as head of practice.
Sigmon, KellDan’s chief innovation officer, began his legal career at Morrison Foerster in Tokyo and advises clients on US, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and European IP matters. He made partner at Banner Witcoff in 2020 and has handled patent prosecution and enforcement matters involving AI, communications systems and regulated technologies, including biotechnology and medical devices.
As part of the firm’s launch, KellDann is releasing a free suite of patent analysis tools named PatentAgility that uses AI, machine learning and natural language processing techniques to help innovators analyse patents and patent families more efficiently.
The suite was developed by Sigmon, who said he intended to make patent analysis faster and more accessible.
“We’ve received positive feedback from beta testers and are excited to make the tool available to the broader innovation community,” he added.
KellDan is the latest in a string of IP boutique launches in the US focused on tech, AI and specialised life sciences. Earlier this month, a trio of lawyers who had previously practised at Brown Rudnick, Mintz Levin and Skadden launched Miletus Intellectual Property Management in Washington DC, which combines legal advice with asset management services.
At the start of this month, a pair of IP boutiques in New Hampshire also merged to form 14-partner Secant IP, while in January, a Philadelphia patent prosecution firm and trademark attorney Andrew Katz joined forces to form Belles Katz.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
