Aoife Elizabeth Butler is a senior associate in the New York office and a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property Group, focused on patent litigation.
Prior to joining Alston & Bird, Aoife worked in both the legal and industrial sectors. As an associate and scientific adviser, she worked on patent litigation matters covering a broad range of technologies, including pharmaceuticals, chemicals, electronic and mechanical devices; as a research scientist, she investigated delivery methods for cancer treatments and developed quantitative analytical methods.
Aoife received her law degree from the University of London and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees, with honors and majoring in chemistry and minoring in mathematics and biology, from the University of Dublin, Trinity College.
A member of the Irish-American community, Aoife has been honored both as one of the Irish Legal 100 and as one of the Top 40 Under 40 Irish/Irish Americans. Aoife is the chair of the U.S. All-Ireland Pan-Alumni Association and serves on the Irish American Leadership Council—a council convened by the prime minister of Ireland to review strategic relations between Ireland and the United States—and is the former president of Irish Network USA.
- Counsel to leading software and technology services and integrated energy companies on matters including financial-trading software technologies and programmable logic controllers.
- Counsel to pharmaceutical companies in matters involving litigation under the Hatch-Waxman Act. Medication classes included antiplatelet agents, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, beta agonists and hypnotics; technologies included enantiomeric actives, extended release formulations, combination drugs and delivery methods.
- Adviser to one of the world’s leading companies in the design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of wind turbines, as well as the development of wind farms.
- Adviser to a global technology company that designs and develops visualization solutions for a variety of markets, including medical imaging, media and entertainment, and defense and security.
- Adviser to the world leader in mechanical locking laminate flooring systems.
- Adviser to a variety of companies engaged in mergers and acquisitions on intellectual property issues; prepared extensive due diligence reports on domestic U.S. and foreign patents and trademarks.
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"Acquiring IP: Due Diligence," Financier Worldwide, October 2012.
Due diligence is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as “[t]he diligence reasonably expected from, and ordinarily exercised by, a person who seeks to satisfy a legal requirement or to discharge an obligation.” But, this definition sheds little light on what is reasonably to be expected when acquiring intellectual property (IP), including patents, trademarks, copyright, and trade secrets.
October 2012
Publications
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"Know Where You Are Going Before You Define Who You Are," Financier Worldwide, July 2012.
You acquired the stock of a company that had a patent settlement agreement with a patentee which precludes all future invalidity and unenforceability defences against a claim for patent infringement – and you’ve since been sued by that same patentee, now what?
July 2012
Publications
- Admitted to practice in New York.
- Admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
- Admitted to practice before the Southern and Eastern District Courts of New York.