Merchant & Gould hires medical devices partner

US-based law firm Merchant & Gould has hired a new partner to its Silicon Valley and Minneapolis offices.

The new partner, Scott Smith, is a registered patent attorney with two decades’ experience advising medical devices companies.

Before joining Merchant & Gould, Smith practised patent law as a partner at Dorsey & Whitney.

His practice focused on patent strategy and portfolio-building, competitive analysis, IP due diligence, and patent prosecution for medical devices and digital health clients in all areas of medicine.

Brian Batzli, CEO and managing director of Merchant & Gould, said: “With Scott’s extensive work in the medical devices industry … he will be a fantastic addition to our medical devices practice.”

Smith said: “I am very excited to be joining a firm with such a strong tradition of IP specialisation and an incredibly deep bench of IP expertise. I look forward to helping build up the already-successful medical devices practice at Merchant and to continuing the successful launch of the firm’s Silicon Valley office.”