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Ira Edell is a founding partner of ESF and has been involved in the intellectual property field since 1964. His degree in Electrical Engineering and years of practicing related engineering enables Ira to apply his diverse work experience to counseling clients on a wide range of IP matters, representing clients in developing and implementing domestic and foreign patent and trademark application prosecution strategies and portfolio management, conducting freedom-to-operate analyses of product designs, preparing invalidity and non-infringement opinions, performing IP due diligence for mergers, acquisitions and IPOs, and negotiating and drafting IP agreements and licenses.
Ira specializes in a wide variety of technologies, including:
- electronic circuitry and systems
- electric power systems
- software-controlled systems
- hearing assistive devices and systems
- medical devices and systems
- fluidic devices and systems
- athletic shoes and traction cleats
- polymer fiber extrusion
- consumer product design
Ira began his career in intellectual property at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examining patent applications pertaining to miscellaneous electronic circuitry and electronic musical instruments. He subsequently joined a small boutique IP firm in Washington, DC where he was involved in patent and trademark prosecution, invalidity and non-infringement opinion writing, licensing, and reissue, reexamination, and interference proceedings. Ira later expanded his experience in these areas with other small firms before founding the predecessor firm to ESF in 1980.
Before beginning his career in intellectual property, Ira spent six years as an electronics engineer working on missile guidance and tracking systems and test equipment design.
In his free time, Ira relishes being with his wife and family, playing tennis, photographing his grandchildren and the world about us, writing songs and traveling. Born in 1937, Ira believes that age is mind over matter; if you don’t mind, your age doesn’t matter.