Paul is a partner practicing in intellectual property law, with a focus on patent prosecution. He practices across a wide variety of technologies and counsels clients on the management of large national and international patent portfolios. Paul manages junior attorneys in drafting and prosecuting patents both domestically and internationally. 

Paul has drafted more than 150 applications, including provisional and non-provisional utility applications and design applications. He has experience across a diverse range of technology sectors, with a deep emphasis on supply chain systems, including processes, manufacturing, optimization algorithms and automation. His experience also extends to software technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine-learning systems. In addition, Paul has substantial experience in e-commerce and financial technologies, database management and search systems, and unmanned technologies, including software and hardware for unmanned aerial vehicles and other autonomous systems. 

Having a proficiency in supply chain and computer systems, Paul has extensive experience with U.S. patent-eligible subject matter issues under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and interpretive case law. Paul also has experience with issues related to subject matter eligibility in many foreign jurisdictions.  

Paul manages non-domestic patent assets in Europe, Japan, South Korea, China, Canada, Mexico, India, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Brazil, among other countries. He works with clients to identify high-value international filing strategies that maximize global asset protection, while minimizing the cost to do so. 

In addition to portfolio management and counseling, Paul’s other work has included preparing invalidity and infringement opinions, preparing patentability opinions, conducting due diligence assessments of patent portfolios, counseling on issues related to assurances of essential patent claims covering industry standards, leading inventor groups in patent forwarding and harvesting sessions, and conducting research and preparing memoranda on various IP-related issues. 

Paul is active in pro bono representation and litigation. In 2021, Paul partnered with two advocacy organizations to help file a § 1983 class action lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of several Kansas gang statutes, along with the practices of a Kansas police department and its specialized gang unit. The lawsuit is ongoing: Progeny v. City of Wichita, in the U.S. District Court, District of Kansas. Additionally, Paul has tried cases in state family court, and represented a criminal defendant indicted on numerous felony threat charges as a special public defender through the Missouri Coalition for the Right to Counsel. 

Before joining Shook, Paul interned in the intellectual property and trade secrets division of a global silicone-products manufacturer and externed with the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, where he drafted patent applications involving material science, radar technology, three-dimensional printing, and defense systems. He has also been published and has presented on his research findings in inorganic chemistry, including the synthesis of lanthanide and actinide compounds. 

Before attending law school, Paul served as a sheriff’s deputy in Kansas. 

Publications

R. K. Burt, P. A. Smith, P. Vogel, A. Jaleel, N. Beedoe, C. Crawford, Z. Assefa, and R. E. Sykora, “Synthesis, Structural, and Photoluminescence Studies of Gd(terpy)(NO3)2(H2O)M(CN)2 (M=Au, Ag) Complexes: Multiple Emissions from Intra- and Inter-molecular Excimers and Exciplexes,” Inorganic Chemistry, 2012, 51(6), 3399−3408. (DOI: 10.1021/ic2014495).

F. White, L. N. Pham, K. R. Xiang, R. Thomas, P. Vogel, C. Crawford, Z. Assefa, R. E. Sykora, “Synthesis, structures, and photoluminescence properties of lanthanide dicyanoaurates containing dimeric aurophilic interactions,” Inorganica Chimica Acta, 2014, 414 (2014), 240 -249. (DOI: 10.1016).

Presentations

ACS National Convention 2007: Synthesis of a Uranyl Complex Containing Ferrocene-1,1'-dicarboxylate

ACS National Convention 2008: Synthesis and Characterization of f-block Thiogallates