Phyllis K. Kristal is a Principal in the Washington D.C. office of Fish & Richardson P.C. Ms. Kristal joined the firm 1993. She has advised clients in all industry sectors on IP matters for more than 20 years, including patent prosecution, freedom to operate, patentability, validity, infringement, landscape, and due diligence studies. With a mechanical engineering background, Ms. Kristal has seen the entire range of IP issues a company of any size may encounter, and has proven experience counseling start-up companies on navigating the IP world.

Ms. Kristal previously worked at DEKA R&D on the development of mobility aids for the disabled, and at Candela Laser Corporation on the design of laser catheters for angioplasty, biliary stones, eye surgery, and dermatology.

About FISHstep

FISHstep is designed to enable startup companies to protect their intellectual property early in their formation – often before the first round of seed funding – without diverting cash from their core business.

Select startup companies will be invited to join the FISHstep program, the benefits of which include the preparation and filing of a patent application with deferred billing until the company is funded, in exchange for 1% of the startup company’s equity.

Since 1878, our firm has been at the forefront of evolutionary change in technology and patent law. We started as a small Boston law firm and now have a legal team of more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists in 12 offices around the world.

We are proud to have represented technology luminaries such as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and the Wright brothers before they were stars – when they were entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and a drive to succeed.

The FISHstep program was created with this history and ingenuity in mind. After consulting with incubators, investors, and former startups, we built this program with the goal of providing select startup companies with a means to protect their valuable intellectual property early in their formation.