Press Release

Bradley is pleased to announce that A.J. Bahou and Blake Bernard have joined the firm’s Nashville office as partners in the Intellectual Property Practice Group.

“A.J. and Blake bring extensive experience in intellectual property law with impressive engineering backgrounds that allow them to provide strategic counsel to clients focused on technologies across a variety of industries, including information security and healthcare,” said Bradley Nashville Office Managing Partner Lauren B. Jacques.

Prior to joining Bradley, Mr. Bahou and Mr. Bernard were partners at an AmLaw100 firm in Nashville. Their arrival, along with the recent addition of an IP team in the firm’s Texas offices, continues to achieve the firm’s goals of strategic growth in the intellectual property industry.

“We welcome A.J. and Blake to Bradley and look forward to the depth of experience they bring to our team, enhancing our capabilities to serve clients in Nashville and throughout the Southeast with sophisticated and complex IP issues related to prosecution, transactions, litigation and technology transfer work,” said Jeffery D. Dyess, chair of Bradley’s Intellectual Property Practice Group.

Mr. Bahou is a registered patent attorney, trial lawyer, mediator and arbitrator with more than 20 years of experience in the areas of electrical and computer engineering technologies, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, medical devices, blockchain, computer hardware, software, and internet security systems. He handles IP litigation involving patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and commercial disputes, representing clients throughout the United States, including the U.S. Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court. He regularly serves as outside general counsel for technology companies, assisting with patent prosecution and enforcement, as well as drafting agreements integral to intellectual property asset protection. Mr. Bahou has served on the board of directors for LaunchTN since 2011, the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association from 2017-2019, where he was president from 2014-2015, and the Board of Tennessee Intellectual Property Law Association since 2010. He earned his J.D. and LL.M. in intellectual property from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, and has an M.S. (with honors) in electrical and computer engineering from Johns Hopkins University, an M.B.A. from Middle Tennessee State University, and a B.S.C.E. from Tennessee Tech University.

Mr. Bernard concentrates his practice on patent and trademark prosecution and enforcement of intellectual property rights in the areas of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret law. He primarily prosecutes patents in the mechanical, electromechanical and industrial arts. He regularly prepares freedom to operate opinions related to new product development and marketing efforts for a range of clients, and he works with private equity and venture capital investors in due diligence and analysis of patent portfolios held by target corporations. He is an active member of the Nashville Bar Association, serving on the board of directors for the Young Lawyers Division and as co-chair of the Race Judicata Committee, and is a member of the Tennessee Intellectual Property Law Association. Mr. Bernard earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law.

Bradley’s Intellectual Property Practice Group maintains a strong national IP practice with a diverse client base that includes mid-sized businesses, multinational corporations and Fortune 500 companies, as well as startups and technology incubators. The firm offers a full range of IP services to successfully protect and defend the valuable IP rights of its clients. The firm’s IP IQ blog covers news and insights about patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, antitrust and technology laws impacting the business community.