The scientist who became a patent attorney

Omid Emile Khalifeh earned his Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles. Studying the most complex system in nature taught him a discipline that would define his legal career: before you can protect an idea, you have to genuinely understand it, down to the mechanism.

He went on to earn his Juris Doctor from the Chapman University School of Law, where he was awarded a full tuition scholarship to attend. While in law school he received the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in recognition of academic excellence, and developed the focus that still anchors his practice: the places where science and technology collide with the law.

That collision became his first published scholarship. His article, The Gene Wars: Science, the Law and the Human Genome, published in the Loyola Law Review, examined how legal frameworks struggle to keep pace with genetic science; a question that has only grown more urgent as the same tension now plays out in artificial intelligence.

Ask Omid’s clients what stands out and the same themes repeat: he is accessible, he explains complex filings in terms a non-lawyer can act on, and he treats a first-time inventor’s application with the same care as a corporate portfolio. Patent and trademark law is procedural and slow by nature; his job, as he sees it, is to make the process legible and keep clients in control of their own decisions.

That philosophy extends to fees. The firm offers fixed fees on most patent and trademark filings, so clients know the cost of protection before committing to it.

Omid is admitted to practice before all California state courts, the United States District Court for the Central District of California, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He is a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a distinction requiring a scientific background and a separate federal examination, and a member of the American Bar Association and leading regional intellectual property law associations.

He has been selected to the Super Lawyers Rising Stars list, an honor extended to no more than 2.5 percent of attorneys in Southern California, named a Top 3 Patent Attorney in Los Angeles by Three Best Rated, and holds a 10.0 rating on Avvo. He is regularly invited to speak at conferences across the country on changes in intellectual property law.