Craig Waller is and IP Attorney at Ference & Associates, a Pittsburgh-based IP Boutique, and the founder and President of Patintelligent, a Pittsburgh-based Intellectual Asset Management consulting company.  Mr. Waller serves a variety of clientele needs in Intellectual Property legal matters, including procurement, enforcement, licensing and opinion writing, through Ference & Associates while providing management consulting services separately to large corporations in need of Intellectual Property Asset Management strategies for identifying, developing, leveraging and monetizing their Intellectual Assets.

After graduating cum laude with his BS in Mechanical Engineering, and working as a network administrator and R&D intern, Craig Waller went on to work as a Product Engineer in the automotive industry before studying law at The John Marshall Law School.  While serving on numerous committees and working at an Intellectual Property boutique in downtown Chicago, he was able to graduate with his JD along with a Certificate for Outstanding Academic Achievement in the Field of IP Law.

After more than a decade of working with clientele from Start-up to the Fortune 50, including practicing as an IP/Patent attorney at K&L (www.klgates.com – an AmLaw 100 law firm) and The Webb Law Firm (www.webblaw.com – 30+ attorney IP boutique), time and time again Mr. Waller discovered that many corporations did not adequately appreciate the gravity of underutilized and/or under-managed Intellectual Assets.  This was evident when clients would often inquire as to the business implications of other’s patents in their technology space as well as meaningfulness of their innovations, or opportunity for innovation, in the patent landscape.  Thus, Mr. Waller founded Patintelligent to bridge the chasm between traditional legal services and business-centric IP consulting solutions and strategies for value creation, identification, contextualization and monetization, while maintaining his legal practice for clientele only interested in procurement, enforcement, licensing and legal opinions.

With diverse experiences in R&D and IT/IS, along with a plenitude of developing/emerging technologies consumed as a registered patent attorney, Mr. Waller serves with a variety of large corporations and small inventors in multiple industries to handle the legal or consulting needs presented.  Mr. Waller also serves on several boards and committees for his companies and various non-profits including, for example, the chairing the executive board of the Enterprise Forum of Pittsburgh (www.enterpriseforumpittsburgh.com) as well as serving a secretary on the executive board of The Pittsburgh Experiment (www.pghexp.com).  He has also spoken nationally, has published works surrounding IP and entrepreneurial related topics and generally enjoys helping entrepreneurs navigate their paths to success.  Mr. Waller is admitted to practice as an attorney in the State of Pennsylvania and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.