Duane Morris has hired three IP partners — in Washington DC and Silicon Valley — as it looks to grow its national practice by securing “marquee talent”.

Tia Fenton and Christopher Ricciuti joined the top 100 US firm's Washington DC office last week, following on from the arrival of Agatha Liu at the Silicon Valley office earlier in January.

Commenting on the hire of Fenton and Ricciuti, Louis Norwood Jameson, chair of the firm’s IP practice group, said: “Tia is a skilled scientist and litigator, both are thought leaders, and Chris has broad technology, patent litigation and PTAB experience; together, they immediately add to our industry-leading patent litigation capabilities in Washington.”

Chairman and CEO Matthew Taylor added: “Our intellectual property capabilities are exceptionally strong for an Am Law 100 firm and we have a premier practice supporting clients with very well-known names on significant, bet-the-company matters. We are focused on adding marquee talent to this practice group."

All the new recruits hail from specialist IP firms. Ricciuti and Fenton were partners at Oblon McClelland Mater & Neustadt; Liu was a partner at Hickman Becker Bingham Ledesma.

Legal directory Chambers USA ranks the firm's Pennsylvania office for IP, citing 'an experienced group with a breadth of highly effective practitioners' and its Georgia arm, where it is 'recognised for its experience acting for technology companies in contentious proceedings, including patent infringement disputes'.

Liu concentrates her practice on IP analysis, portfolio management and strategic counseling. She routinely advises investors, business owners and inventors on all areas of IP related to computer technology. She has a significant research background in artificial intelligence as applied to internet communications, database system management, computational biology and speech recognition.

With a background in chemistry, biochemistry and genetics, Fenton focuses primarily on chemical, biochemical, biomedical and pharmaceutical cases. Prior to attending law school, Fenton was a DNA analyst and a forensic DNA examiner. She advises clients on litigation procedure and strategies, litigation avoidance and the overall protection and enforcement of patent portfolios. 

Ricciuti is involved in litigating mechanical, electrical and computer software patents in federal courts, along with pursuing and defending against patent validity challenges before the US Patent and Trademark Office. Ricciuti’s experience spans a wide range of technologies including consumer electronics, smartphones and cloud and distributed computing systems.