Townsend Belser Joins Nexsen Pruet's Patent Team in Charleston

Townsend M. Belser, Jr., has joined the Firm as Special Counsel in the Charleston office and is a registered patent attorney. He has experience in chemical, nuclear and environmental processes and equipment, semiconductor processes and devices, automotive and other mechanical equipment and devices, and related patent and trademark matters for over 35 years.

"We in the intellectual property teams of Nexsen Pruet are delighted to be able to have an attorney with Townsend Belser's level of experience in intellectual property in our Charleston office to better serve our firm's clients along the coast. Nexsen Pruet's appreciation of the importance of intellectual property to our clients is reflected by our strong capability in intellectual property in Greenville, in Columbia, and now in Charleston," said Michael A. Mann, head of Nexsen Pruet's Intellectual Property team in Columbia.

Belser stated, "After practicing in Washington for over twenty years, I am delighted to be joining Nexsen Pruet as Special Counsel and especially delighted at reestablishing my connection with the state where I grew up and where I originally practiced law. I have many, many friends in South Carolina, and this opportunity allows me to be of service to them and renew old acquaintances."

Mr. Belser earned a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree with honor from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1958, a Certificate of Reactor Engineering from the Bettis Reactor Engineering School of Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1960, and a Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University in 1965. Among his academic honors were the Tau Beta Phi and Phi Kappa Phi honorary societies. He was registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1966 and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1965 and the District of Columbia Bar in 1974. He also is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of Military Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States. Before focusing primarily in Intellectual Property Law in 1978, Mr. Belser's practice included general litigation before state and federal courts and administrative agencies.

Mr. Belser is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Carolina Patent, Trademark & Copyright Law Association, and the Washington International Trade Association. He was on active duty in the Navy as a naval nuclear propulsion engineer assigned to the Atomic Energy Commission from 1958 to 1962. He then served in the Naval Reserves until 1992, attaining the rank of Captain (O6) in the Judge Advocate General Corps.

Mr. Belser has lectured in seminars on intellectual property law as a visiting law instructor at the University of South Carolina, and wrote an article entitled "Something About Patent Law for the General Practitioner", which was published in The South Carolina Lawyer (January-February 1990).

Mr Belser grew up in Columbia and spent his summers with his family on Edisto Island, South Carolina.

Mr. Belser may be contacted at E-mail: TBelser@NPJP.com