Susan Dierenfeldt-Troy is an AV® Preeminent™ rated Attorney practicing law in Miami, Florida, as a shareholder in the firm of Troy & Schwartz, LLC. She is a magna cum laude graduate of St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami Lakes, Florida, and a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent & Trademark Office.
Susan handles the firm’s business and intellectual property law practice areas. She assists clients in obtaining appropriate IP asset protections, monetizing their IP assets, and enforcing their IP rights through litigation. She also represents clients in appeals and opposition proceedings before the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board. Her services include managing her clients’ IP portfolios. Her clients include both US and international clients.
Her pre-law career included academic research and new product development as an R&D manager in the biotech and medical device industries. She is the author of several peer-reviewed scientific research papers. See, e.g., Characterization of Single-Stranded Regions in DNA from Injured Tissue, C.T. Warnick, S. Dierenfeldt, and H. Lazarus, Experimental and Molecular Pathology, 41, 1-9 (1984); In vivo Ischemia and Storage Injury Cause Alternations in the Activity of Poly ADPR Synthetase, Biochemical Medicine & Metabolic Biology, S. Dierenfeldt, C.T. Warnick, and H. Lazarus, Vol. 38, 88-103 (1987). Her article “The Enfish Decision – A Light at the End of the Tunnel for Software Patents?” was published by IPWatchdog at www.IPwatchdog.com in 2016. She was the recipient of awards for Outstanding Scientific Contributions and as the Cross-Functional Team Player of the Year during her tenure with Baxter Diagnostics. Her broad-based background allows her to communicate with a wide variety of individuals, from “large corporation” executives to “just getting started” entrepreneurs.
Susan’s unique background positions her to serve as a valuable IP commercialization resource for her clients. As someone who has developed new, complex products from concept through market release, Susan understands the various issues that confront most new products or new service developers. These issues can range from technical/manufacturing issues to regulatory issues and supplier issues. Prior to attending law school, Susan was also an angel investor in startup technologies with her late husband. As an IP attorney, she is available to consult with investors on matters related to a potential investee’s IP assets and the associated commercialization risks for these IP assets. Her investment background also positions her to advise IP clients who are planning to approach investors on the criteria the investors will likely consider important. She has also represented her IP clients’ interests in M&A discussions. She has a particular interest in applying strategic planning to the IP procurement and commercialization process to maximize clients’ chances of success.
IP asset rights enforcement and commercialization is inevitably intertwined with business law as related to contracts and business entity setup and management. Susan works with her clients to draft and negotiate appropriate contracts including but not limited to the assignment of IP rights agreements, NDAs, supplier agreements, investment agreements, distribution and licensing agreements, and LLC operating agreements. Her goal with any agreement she drafts or reviews is to ensure the client is provided with agreements that are clear, unambiguous, and thorough based on the specific situation(s) the agreement is intended by the parties to address. Having read a lot of badly drafted agreements, she does not want any client to sign any agreement that is not clear and complete.
Susan has also been actively involved in the local community. She developed and taught the following courses through Miami-Dade College’s Continuing Education Program: “Legal Aspects of Starting a New Business” and “Understanding Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks” for small businesses. She was a volunteer Mentor Coach through the University of Miami’s Launch Pad and served as the secretary on the Boards of the South Florida Theatre League and the National Association of Women Business Owners – Miami Chapter. She developed and taught a Florida bar-approved 4 credit CLE Course on Copyright Law for the Performing Arts in 2018 and is currently the charitable coordinator for Miami 3, a professional networking group affiliated with Provisors, Inc., a national networking group.
Admitted To Practice
Florida, 2004
Education
St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law
