Melaina secures patents and trademarks, protecting clients’ intellectual property assets.
An engineering graduate with a passion for detail and analysis, Melaina began her career in finance, but her interest had been sparked by an undergrad law course. Intrigued by the idea of mixing her engineering background with the law through intellectual property work, she soon enrolled in law school.
Today, Melaina draws on nearly 15 years of experience with both patents and trademarks to manage IP portfolios for clients of all sizes. She’s worked with clients whose global IP assets number in the thousands, as well as smaller and newer companies. Melaina regularly prepares and prosecutes both design and utility patent applications and trademark applications, prepares cease and desist letters, and analyzes infringement claims. She also has experience with IP matters in the context of mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions, and she provides general counsel on IP strategy. Melaina is especially enthusiastic about helping clients secure patents for new technology, and she joined Husch Blackwell to grow this portion of her practice. She loves the intricate details of the new inventions developed by the firm’s technology, manufacturing, and transportation clients.
Alongside her IP practice, Melaina also works with data privacy issues and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP). Thanks to the advancement of AI, the convergence of data privacy and cybersecurity with intellectual property is likely to grow, and Melaina looks forward to advising clients with needs and questions in this space.
In addition to her data privacy knowledge, Melaina is known simply for her responsiveness: her goal is always to help the client in any way possible, getting them the answers and connecting them with the resources they need.