Shruti costales

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Shruti Costales (she/her) is the sole owner and founder of Shruti Law PLLC™, which is a woman and minority owned law firm in Washington, DC. Shruti has over twenty years of legal experience including several years of experience working as an in-house lawyer for Fortune 100 technology companies. 

She has two decades of deep legal experience in all things Intellectual Property (IP) including but not limited to: patent application drafting; patent application prosecution; managing worldwide patent portfolios; managing patent application filing and prosecution by partnering with foreign agents across the world; and patent counseling services including preparing invalidity opinions, FTO opinions, infringement opinions, etc. 

Of note, Shruti is a former patent examiner and in the last twenty years she has drafted and prosecuted over 1000 patent applications in various technologies. 

Shruti’s technical experience includes working in the chemicals/materials technologies, life sciences/healthcare technologies, electrical and computer technologies, and mechanical technologies.  

Recently, Shruti was responsible for supply chain agreements and sales agreements totaling billions of dollars at a Fortune 50 technology company. She managed thousands of agreements and negotiated many complex deals involving various issues including IP rights transfer/licensing issues; AI related risks and legal compliance issues; regulatory issues; trade compliance issues; FED/SLED contracting issues; commercial contracting including XaaS contracting issues; data security and privacy rights issues; insurance and tax related issues; antitrust related issues; labor laws compliance related issues; etc. 

She also worked at a Fortune 100 company where she was responsible for all three-dimensional printing materials related sales contracts, procurement contracts, IP contracts, and patent portfolios. In this in-house role Shruti drafted and prosecuted dozens of patent applications. 

Prior to her in-house experiences, Shruti was in private practice for well over a decade where she worked on litigation matters, a variety of contracts, IP counseling matters, and drafting and prosecuting patent applications worldwide in various technology areas.

She has also worked as a patent examiner at the US Patent and Trademark Office. 

She has extensive experience guiding businesses along with related engineering, product, and innovation teams from an early-stage product development to commercialization and launching. She has nearly two decades of experience guiding IP protection strategy and policy with clients. 

Shruti is a recognized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) thought leader in the legal profession. She has generated various white papers and guides on a variety of DEI issues. Shruti has nearly two decades of experience handling various corporate and law firm DEI issues including but not limited to DEI internal policies, DEI public notices, and internal guidelines to support various inclusion, retention, and development efforts while balancing applicable laws and supporting equity in the workplace.  

J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law Center (now the University of New Hampshire School of Law)

B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University

District of Columbia

New Jersey 

United States Patent and Trademark Office

IAPP’s CIPP/US Certified

IAPP’s CIPM Certified  

• Co-author of a comment letter on behalf of the American Bar Association - Intellectual Property Law Section on "Expanding Opportunities To Appear Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board” (May 21, 2024)

• Moderator “Remote, Hybrid, or 100% In-Office Work Models in the Legal Profession - Mental Health Impact on Lawyers, DEI Impact on Lawyers, and Pros & Cons," an IP Chat Channel webinar hosted by the Intellectual Property Owners Association (April 2024) 

 • Co-presenter “IPO’s D&I Committee’s Hiring & Retention Guide – An Introduction and Overview,” a webinar for the Intellectual Property Owners Association (May 2023)

• Co-author of the “Practical Guide to Diversity & Inclusion in the Legal Profession – Hiring & Retention Guide,” a Practical Guide for the Intellectual Property Owners Association (February 2023)

• Co-presenter “Introduction to the Myth of the Meritocracy in the Legal Profession,” a webinar for the Intellectual Property Owners Association (November 2022)

• Co-author of “The Myth of the Meritocracy in Law Firms and Corporate Legal Departments,” a white paper for the Intellectual Property Owners Association (August 2022)

• Co-author Version 3.0 of Section 201, “A Practical Guide to Diversity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession,” a Practical Guide for the Intellectual Property Owners Association (November 2021)

• Co-author Version 3.0 of Section 101, “A Practical Guide to Diversity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession,” a Practical Guide for the Intellectual Property Owners Association (July 2021)

• Co-presenter “How to Successfully Drive Inclusion and Diversity in EVERY IP Department,” IPO Virtual Spring Summit (April 21, 2021)

• Co-author, Comments on USPTO/NCEAI Questions on Increasing Diversity in Innovation (January 2021)

• Co-presenter, “How to Be a Better Ally for Diversity & Inclusion Workshop,” IPO Virtual Annual Meeting (September 2020)

• Moderator, “Practical Guide to Diversity in the Legal Profession in a Post-George Floyd Era,” IPO Webinar (June 2020) 

• Co-presented, “A Practical Guide to Diversity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession,” IPO Spring Summit (March 2020) 

• Co-presenter, “Ex Parte Appeals at the PTAB,” PTAB Bar Association Annual Conference (March 2019)• Co-author, “Economics of Diversity,” white paper for IPO (March 2019) 

• Co-presenter, “Intersection and Dissection of Diversity and Implicit Bias,” IPO Chat Channel Webinar (December 18, 2018) 

• Co-presenter, “Ex Parte Appeals at the PTAB,” PTAB Bar Association Annual Conference (March 2018) 

• Co-author, “Gender Pay Gaps” white paper (October 2018)

• Co-presenter, “How I Hire Outside Counsel,” Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellows Summit (November 2017)

• Co-author: Toolkit on Implicit Bias (November 2017); Implicit Bias White Paper (November 2017)

• Moderator, “Implicit Bias in the Legal Profession,” Intellectual Property Owners Association Annual Meeting (September 2017)

• Moderator, “Implicit Bias in the Legal Profession,” Webinar offered by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s Diversity Committee (August 2017)

• Co-author: Toolkit on Vague Feedback(August 2017), Toolkit on Speaking with Influence(August 2017), Toolkit on Work-Life Balance(August 2017)
• Co-presenter, “Ex Parte Patent Appeals,” South Asian Bar Association-DC (May 2017)

• Author, “EpiPen® Pricing – Evidence of a systemic problem with drug pricing in the USA,” Journal of Generic Medicines: The Business Journal for the Generic Medicines Sector (November 2016) 

• Presenter, “After Final Practice,” Client (confidential), New Jersey (2014)

• Presenter, “Intersection of Patent Prosecution and E-Discovery,” Client (confidential), New Jersey (2013)

• Presenter, “Examiner Interviews at the USPTO,” Client (confidential), New Jersey (2011)

• Co-presenter, “Biotechnology Practice: A Practitioner's Perspective,” United States Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, VA (2008)

• Co-presenter, “Intellectual Property Start-ups,” Genius Federation Seminar at Howard University, Washington, D.C. (2007)

• Co-author, “On-Line and In Court: Determining Jurisdiction for Litigation Involving Trademark and Copyright Infringement on the Internet,” International Legal Strategy (2004)

• Contributor, “Annual Review of Recent Developments in U.S. Intellectual Property Rights and Practice,” International Legal Strategy (2003) 

Intellectual Property Owners Association

Patent Pathways® Advisory Board

Amercian Bar Association

ADAPT Legal

International Association of Privacy Professionals