Elizabeth Morris, leading Pure Storage’s patent prosecution and litigation team, brings infectious enthusiasm to the strategic challenge of building a high-quality patent portfolio for an industry disruptor competing against larger, more established players.Â
In our conversation, she shares how Pure’s focus on precise claim language helps them hold their own in a crowded competitive landscape, why LOT Network membership resonates with her inventors, and the creative inventor engagement program that has her team “drowning” in invention disclosures.
Ed: What makes patent work at Pure particularly exciting for you?
Elizabeth: I think because Pure is an industry disruptor, and most of the other competitors in our space have larger patent portfolios than us, it’s very important that we have high-quality patents. And I find that fascinating as a patent attorney, and challenging. The practice of patent law from a legal perspective is really exciting to me—there’s getting inventors to submit the right things, which is exciting. Then there’s prosecuting and making sure that the quality is really good, and that’s exciting. And then there’s the “now that we have it, what do we do with it? How do we prove that it is valuable to the company?”
Ed: How does Pure’s approach to patents differ given your competitive position?
Elizabeth: We’re very, very focused on the words of the claims and the strategy of the families. We can’t just rely on having more patents than everyone else—we need ours to be strategic and defensible. We’re actively charting on our competitors, just to make sure that we would be ready if somebody picked a fight. I don’t think that we’re interested in starting fights, but we’re very interested in holding our own.
Ed: What does “holding your own” mean in your industry?
Elizabeth: We’re in a freedom of practice industry, not a freedom to operate industry, so that means there are overlapping portfolios within the industry. It’s not a space where you can totally find white space. We know there’s going to be overlap, we know there’s going to be people that are practicing in the space where we also practice, and we just need to keep that in mind as we’re charting things on our competitors. That’s why the quality of our patent language really matters—it’s how we carve out and defend our position.
Ed:: Why does LOT Network membership matter to Pure?
Elizabeth: PAEs are a problem in our space, and coming up with mechanisms that can be effective for handling PAEs, I think, is really important. That’s what LOT Network was trying to do, and I think it was a really good idea. It’s pretty low cost, honestly, in the grand scheme of things.Â
Ed: What continues to make the membership valuable?
Elizabeth: I really appreciate that you have recently landed some new big fish. That’s very valuable to members, so we’re really, really happy about that, too. The more companies that join, the more protection we all have—it strengthens the entire network effect.
Ed: How do you respond to people who say LOT Network limits portfolio value?
Elizabeth: I do talk to people who are not members who say, “Oh, well, it limits the value of your portfolio.” And I’m like, yeah, only if you were going to sell to PAEs, right? If you’re an operating company that’s actually building products and innovating, that’s not your business model anyway. For us, the protection LOT Network provides against PAE assertion far outweighs any theoretical limitation on who we could sell patents to—because we’re not in the business of selling to PAEs.
Ed:: Do your inventors know about LOT Network membership?
Elizabeth: Absolutely. I actually highlight our LOT Network membership when I’m working with inventors, especially the younger ones. It matters to them that their work won’t end up with PAEs. They want to know that the innovations they’re creating are going to be used to protect Pure’s products and our position in the market—not sold off to patent trolls who are just going to use them to extract settlements from other operating companies.
Ed: Why does that resonate particularly with younger inventors?
Elizabeth: I think younger inventors or those with a startup mentality are really thoughtful about where their work ends up and how it’s used. They’re proud of what they’re building, and they want their patents to serve a legitimate business purpose. When I can tell them, “Your innovation is protected by LOT Network, which means even if Pure ever sold these patents, they can’t end up being asserted by a PAE against other LOT members,” that actually means something to them. It’s not just about legal strategy—it’s about the integrity of their work and contributing to an ecosystem that rewards real innovation rather than litigation games.
