Ali Z. - Patent Trial and Appeal Board Detailee

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Lexington, United States

Experience

Mar 2023 - Jul 2023

5 months

Alexandria, United States

Patent Trial and Appeal Board Detailee

United States Patent & Trademark Office

Assisting in drafting written opinions on appeals as directed by the assigned APJ panels
Observing PTAB hearings in patent appeals and other matters within the jurisdiction of the Board
Participating in appeal conferences conducted by the panel members assigned to the appealed cases
Briefing judges and drafting opinions, orders, and memoranda relating to patent appeals and other matters within the jurisdiction of the board
Researching technical issues raised in appealed cases and other matters within the jurisdiction of the board
Researching legal issues and applying court decisions in legal analysis

Sep 2017 - Present

8 years 4 months

Boston, United States

Attorney Volunteer

Volunteer Lawyers Project

Performed client intake; provided legal guidance in drafting/filing necessary forms in divorce, custody, and guardianship cases
Provided limited representation to clients in the Family Court

Oct 2010 - Present

15 years 3 months

Alexandria, United States

Primary Patent Examiner (Network Security/TC 2400)

United States Patent & Trademark Office

Handling substantive assignments related to patent application examination in computer networking security and multimedia recording/reproducing arts
Examining patent applications and drafting Office Actions in a range of technology areas including blockchain (protocols and applications), cryptography algorithms, communication network security protocols (NIDS, IDP, deep packet inspection), storage area security protocols, anti-virus, cloud computing (communications, storage area networks, virtual machines), databases, smart phone applications, networking (3GPP, WiMAX, LTE, IPSEC, VPN, OSPF Authentication, VBS), and various recording/reproducing technologies such as MPEG and HDCP standards
Participating in appeal reviews; drafting Examiner’s Answers
Mentoring junior examiners in understanding applications, patent laws, formulating search strategies, and writing Office Actions
Award – Exceptional Career Award: Silver Medal Award, June 2022
Accolade – Office of Patent Quality Assurance (OPQA) recognition for employing superior examination practices in application examinations, July 2022
Award – Exceptional Career Award: Bronze Medal Award, June 2017

Aug 2009 - May 2010

10 months

Chelsea, United States

SJC Rule 3.03 Student Attorney for Landlord-Tenant Clinic

Suffolk University Legal Services

Planned and conducted all phases of civil lawsuits, including strategy planning, legal research to determine causes of action, drafting pleadings and pretrial motions, and conducting fact investigations
Prepared pretrial and trial memorandums and participated in pretrial conferences
Represented a defendant before a bench trial and secured judgment on claims and counter-claims
Drafted discovery, interrogatories, answers, trial memos, and motions for attorneys’ fees and cost
Conducted witness examinations, introduced evidence, and argued motions for attorneys’ fees and cost post trial

Apr 2006 - Feb 2010

3 years 11 months

Acton, United States

Senior Member of Technical Staff

Force10 Networks Inc.

Researched and drafted architectural specifications for Carrier Ethernet Service OAM performance monitoring based on Metro-Ethernet Forum (MEF) standard/recommendations
Researched and drafted functional and design specifications (FDS) for Ethernet policer; implemented design on multiple switching chips and Ethernet switch modules
Researched and drafted FDS for Carrier Ethernet service ports performance monitoring; implemented design on a 10 Gigabit-Ethernet (GbE) switch module
Participated in the development of a wireless back-haul aggregator platform; researched and drafted FDS for porting and modifying existing software infrastructure from VxWorks platform to the aggregator platform running Linux; ported and modified software based on the FDS recommendations
Responsible for Wide Area Network (WAN) chipsets supporting LCAS/VCAT for Ethernet over SONET/PDH features for multiple switch modules, including a 10 GbE switch module and a 2.5 GbE switch module; drafted FDS; implemented features based on FDS; assisted hardware team in hardware validation
Researched and proposed specifications for RSTP interoperability between old and new generation of Force10 switch modules

Jun 2005 - Apr 2006

11 months

Woburn, United States

Senior Software Engineer

Gotuit Media Inc.

Led a development team to design and implement an end-to-end performance & error monitoring system for Gotuit’s Video-on-Demand (VOD) channels deployed in the digital cable market
Managed project task scheduling & progress monitoring; wrote functional & design specifications
Implemented a client-server (TCP/IP & UDP/IP) messaging system where set-top boxes represented the client layer sending performance, usage, & error messages to a multithreaded server running at the cable head-ends

Dec 2004 - May 2005

6 months

Boxborough, United States

Senior Software Engineer (Consultant)

Telsima Inc.

Designed and implemented a generic IO redundancy (IOR) framework providing various protection schemes for modular IO cards to recover from faults causing service disruptions
Developed IOR framework for automatic protection switch (APS) fail-over/recovery; operations, administration & maintenance (OAM) of equipment; and event logging

Jan 2004 - Dec 2004

1 year

Billerica, United States

Senior Software Engineer (Consultant)

Nortel Networks

Designed and developed device driver architecture for line interface modules (SONET/SDH, Ethernet, PDH) on Linux platform for a multi-service edge router (MPE)
Assisted hardware group by providing diagnostics and board bring-up (BSP) software

May 2000 - Jan 2004

3 years 9 months

Boxborough, United States

Senior Software Engineer

Coriolis Networks Inc.

Researched and developed Metro-access switch platforms providing data and voice (TDM) services
Developed embedded system software and diagnostics tools for hardware verification

Dec 1998 - May 2000

1 year 6 months

Westford, United States

Software Engineer

Lucent Technologies

Designed and developed embedded system software (C/C++) and device drivers for SONET/SDH modules as part of the layer-2/layer-3 IP switch platform development

Summary

Working knowledge of current Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) practices with respect to applying patent laws, rules and PTO guidelines to ex Parte appeals and AIA trials.
Working knowledge of current patent examination practices with respect to applying patent laws, rules and PTO guidelines to patent application examination in network security and multimedia recording technologies.
Technical knowledge of AI/ML, blockchain, cryptography algorithms, communication network security protocols, storage area security protocols, anti-virus, cloud computing, databases, smart phone applications, networking.
Ten+ years of research and development experience in the networking & telecommunications industry. Specializing in analyzing, designing, and implementing embedded system for communications systems.