
Vera L. Suarez
Vera Suarez is a registered patent attorney in the Intellectual Property Group in the Dallas office of Haynes Boone. Vera focuses her practice on building domestic and international patent portfolios for both utility and design patents.
When representing her clients at the USPTO, Vera implements a wide variety of strategies and techniques to obtain broad patent protection quickly. She not only manages domestic and international patent portfolios in a wide variety of technology areas, but also advises clients with respect to patent validity, freedom to operate, and product clearance. Vera also has helped her clients establish best practice policies and procedures relating to patent and trade secret protection.
Vera has patent drafting and/or clearance experience in technologies including those relating to:
- Computer software, including artificial intelligence (AI), analytic algorithms, and graphical user interfaces (GUIs)
- Mechanical devices, including upper and lower downhole completion systems, manufacturing equipment, electrical fittings and seals, pumping components, and fluid monitoring systems
- Medical devices, including stents, periocular devices, body-mountable monitoring devices, syringes, auto-injectors, and biofluid pumps
- The Internet of things (IoT) involving oilfield equipment and medical devices
- Garments and accessories such as nursing bras, handbags, and jeans
She often draws on her previous experience in the oilfield when interviewing inventors and preparing patent applications that relate to downhole tools. Vera worked on an offshore oil rig off the coast of Mexico and, for the majority of the time, was the only woman present on her rig.
Vera helped to create Haynes Boone's national “Patent Prosecution Training Program,” in which she trained patent attorneys and agents. She is co-chair of the firm’s Attorney Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, which focuses on advancing the hiring, retention, and promotion of diverse lawyers within the firm. From 2018-2020, she co-chaired the Working Parents Committee, which assists in the development of policies and programs designed to support the unique challenges of working parents.
Prior to attending law school, Vera worked domestically and internationally as a consultant engineer for a large mutual insurance company. In this role, she visited a wide variety of locations and consulted with the local management of each. Vera performed on-site engineering analyses for a wide range of properties, including industrial and manufacturing facilities, warehouses, distribution centers, refineries, foundries, correctional facilities, data centers and medical centers among others.
- Represented SurgiSil at the Federal Circuit and successfully argued for a reversal of a design patent claim rejection, which also overturned Patent Office precedent.
- Dallas Bar Association
- The Honorable Barbara M.G. Lynn American Inn of Court, Student Member, 2011-2012
- Included in the "Ones to Watch" category of The Best Lawyers in America, Woodward/White, Inc., 2023
- "A Discussion on Design Patents," speaker, NAWL Women in Intellectual Property & Tech Law, December 7, 2021.
- "Design Patents – Latest from Federal Circuit on Claim Scope and its Effects," co-speaker, DBA Intellectual Property Section CLE, December 2, 2021.
- "Federal Circuit Narrows the Scope of Design Patent Claims," author, The Patent Lawyer, November 9, 2021.
- "Federal Circuit Tells Patent Office to Limit Scope of Design Patents, Overturning Patent Office Precedent," co-author, Haynes Boone IP Beacon blog, October 11, 2021.
- "Lawyers Hail USPTO’s Bid to Resolve Patent Eligibility Muddle," interview, World IP Review, July 14, 2021.
- "Fed. Circ. Simio Patent Eligibility Ruling May Affect Alice Test," author, Law360, February 09, 2021.
- "Logos and the Ordinary Observer Test," co-author, Haynes Boone IP Beacon blog, November 22, 2019.
- "Berkheimer and 35 U.S.C. §101," presenter, CLE presentation, December 6, 2018.
- "How Law Firms are Helping Their New Attorneys Succeed," speaker, Texas A&M School of Law Post-Graduation Support Series, Fort Worth, Texas, February 12, 2018.
- "Recent Developments in Intellectual Property Practice," presenter, Intellectual Property Panel Discussion with Haynes and Boone, Dallas, Texas, November 1, 2017.
- "Intellectual Property Law," author, SMU Law Review, 2014.
Education
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Oklahoma State University, 2004
J.D., Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, 2011, cum laude; SMU International Law Review Association, Articles Editor
Clerkships
Intern to the Honorable Judge Amos Mazzant, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Texas
Intern to the Honorable Judge A. Joe Fish, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas
Admissions
Texas
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Court Admissions
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Haynes Boone served as lead counsel for Patent Owner Nabors Drilling Technologies in Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Company et al. v. Nabors Drilling Technologies USA, Inc., IPR2021-00897. Haynes Boone persuaded the PTAB to deny institution of trial for Petitioner’s validity challenges to [...]
Haynes Boone represented SurgiSil at the Federal Circuit and successfully argued for a reversal of a design patent claim rejection, which also overturned Patent Office precedent.
Defended HRsmart and its customers against GeoTag in a major patent infringement case in the Eastern District of Texas involving job locater technology against hundreds of defendants and successfully negotiated a settlement after months of litigation.
Welcome! We are pleased to highlight key intellectual property (IP) news from 2021, and some of our representative IP-related client successes and publications over the past year that might be relevant to your business success in 2022. Our IP department has continued growing and extends across the U.S. with offices in California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Our IP tea [...]

Vera Suarez in The Patent Lawyer on Narrowing Scope of Design Patent Claims
November 09, 2021