John Sears

John S. Sears, JD, PhD, CLP is an experienced patent attorney and licensing professional, educator, and chemist. As the Director of Intellectual Property (IP) for Anzu Partners, John leads the firm’s IP diligence efforts and assists portfolio companies in all areas of intellectual property strategy. John is the founder of Innovators Legal and is also currently Adjunct Faculty at Wake Forest University School of Law, where he develops and teaches courses at the intersection of IP and business. John volunteers and serves on various academic and professional boards, including the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech and the Georgia Intellectual Property Alliance.

John’s broad scientific background, extending from mathematics and computer science to chemistry and material science, enables him to support Anzu’s portfolio companies across a wide spectrum of technologies. John has worked on and managed federally-sponsored and industry-sponsored research programs covering technologies ranging from homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, to materials development for organic electronics devices, to computational methods and software development for electronic structure computations. John has several years of both Linux and Windows computer system administration experience, is proficient in multiple programming languages, and is experienced in high-performance computing administration.

John’s previous legal experience includes many years of private practice at both small and large IP boutique law firms. His clients include prominent universities and research hospitals, venture capital groups, as well as early-stage and multi-national companies. Before transitioning into a legal career, John was on the research faculty at Georgia Institute of Technology for five years where he worked jointly between the institute’s Center for Computational Molecular Science and Technology and Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics to develop and lecture courses on organic electronics and mentor numerous undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral researchers on research programs in organic electronic materials. John also has prior technology transfer and commercialization experience, having worked for two years at Wake Forest Innovations, the technology commercialization and licensing arm of Wake Forest University and Wake Forest Baptist Health.

John graduated summa cum laude from The University of the South, with bachelor’s degrees and departmental thesis honors in both chemistry and mathematics. John went on to receive his doctorate in chemistry from Georgia Institute of Technology and his juris doctor (law degree) from Wake Forest University School of Law.

A native of Winchester TN, John currently resides in Atlanta, GA.