Janet Pioli

Janet A. Pioli helps companies develop and manage patent portfolios that protect their products, support their commercial objectives, and preserve room for future innovation. A registered patent attorney with more than three decades of experience, Janet counsels clients on patent strategy, patentability and clearance, prosecution management, portfolio development, and intellectual-property due diligence.

Janet approaches patent prosecution with an eye toward the patent’s entire lifecycle. She focuses on securing claims that meaningfully cover the client’s technology, make competitive design-arounds more difficult, and can withstand scrutiny after issuance. Her substantial experience before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit gives her an unusually practical perspective on how decisions made during prosecution can later affect claim construction, validity, and enforceability.

Her work spans a broad range of technologies, including medical devices, diagnostic systems, biotechnology, navigation technologies, industrial equipment, automotive systems, food and beverage products, packaging, personal-care products, chemicals, loudspeaker systems, and nutritional supplements. She is particularly adept at overseeing diverse and extensive portfolios involving products at different stages of development and coordinating prosecution strategy with a client’s business and competitive priorities.

Janet has also handled inter partes review proceedings and numerous patent appeals, including oral arguments before the PTAB and the Federal Circuit. That experience enables her to recognize potential weaknesses early and develop prosecution records designed to support both allowance and long-term patent strength.

Janet studied molecular biology and biotechnology at the Illinois Institute of Technology and is admitted to practice before the USPTO. She is a past president of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago, has held leadership positions in the Richard Linn American Inn of Court, and has served on the Board of Visitors of Northern Illinois University College of Law.