Attorney Kevin Christopher is the founder and Venture Lead of Rockridge Venture Law®, a B Corp intellectual property and technology firm. Kevin is a registered patent attorney, active entrepreneur, and National Science Foundation (NSF) evaluator for the research hub Center for Green Solid-State Electric Power Generation and Storage (CEPS). He is a Tennessee Bar Association Leadership Lawyer, and board member to several environmental and social impact nonprofits. In 2019, Kevin Christopher was nationally recognized as a Top Business Leader by Conscious Company Magazine and SuperLawyer, and was honored as a member of Leadership Tennessee.

Attorney Kevin Christopher is a corporate attorney, patent attorney, and trademark attorney. Specifically, his practice areas include: patent and trademark prosecution, licensing and litigation; corporate law, with an emphasis on benefit corporations, socially responsible businesses and high-growth emergent companies; government contracts, with an emphasis on innovation funding; corporate and investor financing; and, technology commercialization.

Prior to founding RVL®, Attorney Kevin Christopher led bioscience and biotech development activities with top secret security clearance at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. His copyright and patent licensing portfolio included anti-infectives, drug delivery systems, neural interface devices, sequencing software, and other state of the art technologies. Kevin’s commercialization of a microbiome analysis chip resulted in a Federal Licensing Consortium deal of the year award. Kevin managed a 40+ patent neural interface portfolio that was licensed as the groundbreaking Argus II artificial retina, and additionally directed to multi-region neuron mapping and as a tool for the treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Early in his career, Kevin commercialized innovations of several Nobel awardees in the technology transfer office of UC Berkeley. In addition to his corporate R&D portfolio of technologies ranging from metal organic frameworks to robotic surgery systems, Kevin led partnerships at NSF research centers Berkeley Sensor Actuator Center (BSAC), Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (Synberc), and Reinventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt).

As an entrepreneur, Attorney Kevin Christopher has co-founded or acted as key advisor for a broad range of startups, including those with algal protein production, biomass energy conversion, men’s toiletries, microbiome editing skincare, and hepatocellular carcinoma diagnostic technologies. Kevin has served as an NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) application review panelist, an NIH SBIR consultant, and was part of the inaugural SBA Innovation Corps.

As a student, Kevin was a teaching assistant to former State of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm at Berkeley Law, outstanding scholar in the UC Hastings Law and Bioscience program, judicial extern for U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer, law clerk for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and regularly featured poet in To An Unknown God – A Journal of Christian Thought at Berkeley. After graduating from law school, Kevin continued his education through the UC Davis Biomedical Engineering Graduate Group and as a research member of the Berkeley Rural Energy Group. He has completed executive education programs in venture capital through the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Attorney Kevin Christopher’s recent patent and trademark activities include:

• Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) Cancellation Proceeding No. 92071980, Godisghl, LLC v. Elevated Faith LLC
• Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) Opposition Proceeding No. 91252177, Advance Royalty Company, LLC v. AARP
• Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) Opposition Proceeding No. 91238584, Rich Froning Fitness, LLC v. Monster Energy Company
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee, No. 1:19-cv-00271, Stone Door Group, LLC v. Meade
• U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, No. 3:18-cv-01312, Hain Lifescience GmbH v. Seider and Hain Diagnostics, LLC
• U.S. Patent Reg. No. 16/367,223 Wristband with Selectable Indictor Lights and Methods of Use of a Wristband
• U.S. Patent Reg. No. 15/985,690 Full-Flex Helmet System
• U.S. Patent Reg. No. 15/635,234 All Limb Powered and Steered Front Wheel Drive Land Vehicle
• U.S. Patent Reg. No. D872,996 Tri-Paneled Shipping Container
• U.S. Patent Reg. No. D842,942 Resistance Grip Strengthening Glove
• U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 6005844 HAPPY JUICE COFFEE®
• U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 5959266 PERIOSOLUTIONSRX®
• U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 5951653 MICROBE LINK DX®
• U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 5901173 TENNESSEE EYE CARE®
• U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 5881244 SUN GARDEN®
• U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 5850162 VETERAN VENTURES®
• U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 5615431 BIOPET®
• U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 4098830 POOPRINTS®

• Benefit Corporations
• Corporate Compliance & Governance
• Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Filings
• General Counsel
• Government R&D Contracts (CRADA, SBIR, STTR, etc.)
• Investor Relations & Financings
• Patent Licensing
• Patent Litigation
• Patent Prosecution
• Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) Filings
• Trademark Licensing
• Trademark Litigation
• Trademark Prosecution

• District of Columbia

• State of Tennessee

• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee

• U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

B The Change, “What’s My Job’s Purpose? The Value of Being a B Corp in the Labor Market”

Conscious Company Media, “Top 22 Business Leaders of 2019”

Times Free Press, “Doing Well by Doing Good: B Corporations Broaden Business Goals to Maximize Shareholder Value”

“Copyright and Public Art.” Tennessee Intellectual Property Law Association. Fall Seminar. Nashville, TN. 2 Nov. 2018. Presentation.

“Vile and Viral Trademarks.” Tennessee Intellectual Property Law Association. Spring Seminar. Nashville, TN. 4 May 2018. Presentation.

“Intellectual Property.” AgLaunch Bootcamp. Knoxville, TN. 11 July 2018. Presentation.

“Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs.” Tennessee Tech Rural Innovation Conference. Cookeville, TN. 7 June 2018. Presentation.

“Advanced Energy Entrepreneurship.” Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council. Opportunities in Energy. Knoxville, TN. 6 Dec. 2016. Presentation.

“Country Music Industry Fights Website Allegedly Selling Bootleg Merchandise.” Fox 17 News Nashville. 3 Aug. 2016. Television Interview.

“Tech Transfer to Manufacturing.” University of California, Berkeley Entrepreneurship Symposium. Biomedical Entrepreneurship: A Roadmap to the Future. Berkeley, CA. 14 Oct. 2014. Presentation.

“Startups and Venture Capital.” Industry Contract Officers Network Annual Meeting. Caltech University. Pasadena, CA. 16 Oct. 2012. Presentation.

“Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing.” University of California Intellectual Property Managers Meeting. Santa Barbara, CA. 2012. Presentation.

Granholm, Jennifer et al. “Creating Jobs through Investment in Renewable Energy and Clean Technology: A Proposal for Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu.” Washington, DC. 29 May 2012. Presentation.

“Reclaiming our Technological Posterity at the Intersection of Intellectual Property and Taxation: Uncovering how Patent Pools are Key to Recapturing the Benefits of Charitable IP Contributions,” American University Intellectual Property Brief (April 2011).

Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Freeing the Grid (2010).

Paul Herman, The Hip Investor: Make Bigger Profits by Building a Better World (2009).

Collected Works. TAUG: To an Unknown God. University of California, Berkeley. Volumes 1-2. Original Poetry.