Jeff Whittle is a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) and provides over three decades of legal experience to clients in the energy and high-tech industries. He advises on strategic and complex technology transactions, licensing, joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions, patent protection, portfolio analysis, and other contentious and transactional intellectual property matters, including inter partes reexaminations, post-grant reviews, and derivation proceedings, among other disputed cases.
Jeff has been recognized by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, The Legal 500 United States, WIPR Leaders Club, IAM Patent 1000, IAM Strategy 350, IAM Global IP Leaders, Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars, Who’s Who Legal, Patents, and Client Choice Awards, among others, for his outstanding career and contributions to law and intellectual property. He also is a senior member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).
Jeff has served on the Certified Licensing Professionals Board of Governors since 2018, is a past-president and chair of the Licensing Executives Society (LES) for the USA and Canada (2015-2017), served on the LES Board for over six years, and currently serves as co-chair of the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI) Americas Committee for North and South America. He is a frequent and highly sought-after speaker and author, nationally and internationally, on various transaction/intellectual property/licensing/technology/energy topics and has taught the CLP Exam Review Course on numerous occasions.
Jeff serves as the Office Managing Partner for the Houston Office of Womble Bond Dickinson (US), LLP and co-chairs its Energy and Natural Resources Industry Sector. Jeff is register to practice law in the states of Texas, New York, Colorado, Florida, and North Carolina, and he is a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He also has served on the International Advisory Board of the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) in Saudi Arabia, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Technology Review Committee, the IP Law360's Advisory Board, the Wake Forest University School of Law's Board of Visitors, the Advisory Council for the University of Houston Law Center’s Intellectual Property Law Institute, and the Advisory Board for the Institute of Energy Law (IEL), as well as on boards of various charitable organizations.
Jeff is also a member of the Texas Bar College and a member of the Texas Bar Foundation. He has been awarded and recognized with the 2015 Distinguished Service Award from the University of Houston Law Center, the 2018 Global IP Attorney of the Year by Legal Era, the 2019 Texas Trailblazer Award as a Texas Lawyer, the 2019 LES Frank Barnes Award for mentorship in the licensing profession, and the 2020 Technology Lawyer of the Year in Texas by the Best Lawyers of America.