Kelly Casey Mullally is Of Counsel in the Firm’s Atlanta office and a member of the Intellectual Property and Appellate Law practice groups. Ms. Mullally has experience in all stages of patent and trademark litigation, from bench and jury trials in the U.S. District Courts, to U.S. Circuit Court appeals, through the U.S. Supreme Court certiorari petition stage. Ms. Mullally provides client counseling in patent, trademark, and copyright procurement and enforcement. She represents individuals and businesses in trademark prosecution and inter partes proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is also a registered patent attorney.

Skilled in readying cases for appeal, Ms. Mullally also focuses her practice on federal appellate litigation. She has substantial experience analyzing complex trial court records to distill themes and strategies for appeal briefs and oral arguments, successfully navigating disputes through the federal appellate process. She represents clients and collaborates with trial counsel to best preserve, posture, and perfect critical issues for appeal. Ms. Mullally enjoys applying her appellate background in new contexts to address threshold procedural issues and resolve difficult legal questions in a broad range of subject matters, such as contract, employment, tax, torts, and receivership disputes. Following law school, Ms. Mullally served as a law clerk to the Honorable J.L. Edmondson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the Honorable William C. Bryson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Ms. Mullally was a law professor, with a teaching and research emphasis on intellectual property, contract law, and torts, for ten years. She has authored numerous articles and given speeches regarding patent and copyright law for national and local organizations throughout the country. Her work has been cited by judges, scholars, and practioners. She previously served on the editorial board and as a Notes editor for the Georgia Law Review.

Before attending law school, Ms. Mullally worked in academic and industry research and development involving synthesis of organic compounds and protein adhesion on nonwoven polymer materials.

Awards and Honors

• University of Georgia School of Law:
  • 1998 First Honor Graduate
  • Isaac Meinhard Award
  • Chaffin Award for Excellence in Fiduciary Law
  • Georgia Bar Association Real Property Award

Professional Involvement

• American Bar Association
• Atlanta Intellectual Property Inn of Court
  • Founding Member
  • Master
  • Past Pupilage Group Chair
• Federal Bar Association
• Federal Circuit Bar Association

Bar Admissions

• Georgia
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

• Your Friendly Neighborhood Patent License: Should Royalty Payments Based on Postexpiration Use Be Per Se Unenforceable?
• Blocking Copyrights Revisited
• Post-MedImmune Burden of Proof in Declaratory Judgment Actions
• Legal (Un)Certainty, Legal Process, and Patent Law
• The New Private Ordering of Intellectual Property: The Emergence of Contracts as the Drivers of Intellectual Property Rights
• Patent Hermeneutics: Form and Substance in Claim Construction
• Exxon Chemical Patents, Inc. v. Lubrizol Corp.: The Federal Circuit Sets Unreasonable Standards for Chemical Composition Inventions, 31 GA. L. REV. 1223