Derek Fahey and Mark Terry have joined forces to form The Plus IP Firm, PLLC. Mark and Derek are registered patent attorneys that are licensed to practice by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Derek and Mark’s practices are focused on helping businesses and inventors acquire and protect patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. They utilize their resources, education, skills and engineering backgrounds to formulate intellectual property strategies to assist companies in reaching their business goals.
Derek is an engineer and registered patent attorney and founded his own firm in order to pursue his life-long dream of owning his own business. Like many of his clients, Derek is an entrepreneur. Derek utilizes his education, engineering experience and skills to provide his clients with solutions best suited for their business goals.
Derek immigrated to Florida from the Caribbean island of Trinidad with his family in 1989. Derek graduated from Florida State University magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and as member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.
After graduating, Derek worked in the energy sector as a Senior Field Engineer for Schlumberger, an oilfield service company, in various locations around the world including Algeria, Canada, France and various parts of the United States. He left Schlumberger to return to Florida to work for Florida Power and Light (FPL) as an Engineering Project Manager. At FPL, he designed electrical distribution for various types of construction and development projects. He left FPL to attend Law School at the University of Florida Levin College of Law where he specialized in intellectual property and graduated on the Dean’s List.
Derek is a member of The Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale Cypress Creek. Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Derek has been an active member and holds a leadership position as The Club’s Speaker Chair.
Mark Terry is a registered patent attorney a board certified Intellectual Property attorney. This special certification means that he is a Florida Bar Certified specialist in the areas of copyright, patent and trademark law. Mark earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics and Mathematics from the American University in Washington, D.C. and conducted research as an undergraduate in the field of astronomy at the Astronomy Dept. of University of Michigan and in the field of particle physics at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University. Later, Mr. Terry entered the field of software development, where he worked as a professional software engineer for Trident Systems in Northern Virginia. Mr. Terry developed, and still develops to this day, software programs in a variety of fields including photolithography, military simulations, curve fitting, and more.
Mark Terry is a former Patent Examiner and a current Software Engineer that now provides his services to local private clients as a patent attorney registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Terry continued his career as a Patent Examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) where Mark was a member of Technology Center 2700 and examined patent applications for a wide range of technologies including database access, data storage, database management systems and data display methods. As a Patent Examiner, Mr. Terry graduated from first year Examiner training at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Academy. While at the USPTO, Mr. Terry worked on multiple controversial and high profile cases, including patent applications related to Y2K solutions and Amazon patent applications.
Subsequent to his stint as a Patent Examiner, Mr. Terry worked as a patent associate for various intellectual property law firms in the D.C.-area and in South Florida where Mr. Terry represented multiple Fortune 500 companies, such as IBM, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company, Silicon Graphics, Inc. and MIPS. Mr. Terry practices patent and trademark preparation and prosecution, as well as patent and trademark litigation.
Mark is also a member of the Florida Bar Intellectual Property Certification Committee. Some of the duties of sitting on this committee require him to vet applicants along with the preparation of the exam that must be passed in order to be board certified.
The Plus IP Firm has offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Naples, West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Gardens where the trademark and patent attorneys are available to meet for consultation with current and prospective clients.