In his nearly 40 years as a patent attorney, Russ Orkin's job has ranged from protecting steelmaking processes to sorting out a dispute between drug makers over who held the rights to a medical skin patch.

Photographer, Post-Gazette Russ Orkin, presdient of Webb Law Firm, and Barbara Johnson, a vice president who is a specialist in bioloigy/plant patents, show off a 1900 Book of Patents. The Downtown firm, which specializes in patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, was founded in 1845. Click photo for larger image.

Those cases might have been challenging, but they don't compare to Orkin's favorite legal work: securing patents for plants. That would be plants of the greenhouse variety such as the poinsettias that decorated your house for Christmas and the geraniums you're eyeing for the garden this spring.

Orkin is president of Webb Law Firm, a Downtown law practice that specializes in patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets -- or what's commonly known in the legal world as intellectual property. He launched the firm's niche in what he calls "plant varieties protection" in the late 1960s when he did some patent work for Oglevee Ltd., the Fayette County-based nursery known for its vibrant geraniums and poinsettias.

Orkin honed his expertise in Germany in the 1970s when East Germany was still a Communist state. Orkin helped Oglevee secure the rights to geranium varieties produced by East German breeder Elsner, located in Dresden, by sending a team of patent experts across the Berlin Wall. Even though Elsner at the time was controlled by the East German government, Orkin's team obtained the licenses it needed and Oglevee has continued to do business with the German plant breeder ever since.

Webb has helped such clients as Oglevee and Penn State University, which has a world-renowned horticulture department, procure more than 350 patents for genetically engineered plants and crops. The firm ranked third among 357 firms nationwide for the number of plant patents it procured in 2002, according to legal trade journal Intellectual Property Today.

For its business overall, the trade journal put Webb at No. 97 nationwide based on the number of patents it secured in 2002 (301) and No. 90 for number of trademarks (215).

Webb, which still carries the formal name of Webb Ziesenheim Logsdon Orkin & Hanson but uses the shorter version for common reference, has been specializing in patent work since it got its start in the city 150 years ago. One of its first big clients was George Westinghouse, who in the 1860s and 1870s was a young Pittsburgh inventor seeking patents for his railroad air brakes. Huge bound volumes in Webb's Koppers Building offices provide some history of the city's industrial boom when Webb secured early patents for the glass and steel industries.

But Webb's business didn't disappear when many of its industrial clients did with the collapse of the region's manufacturing base 20 years ago. Because of its patent specialty, the firm retains a large number of non-local clients along with as a steady stream of work from emerging local industries.

Webb represented Pittsburgh entrepreneur Glen Chatfield when he was trying to obtain one of the first software patents for Duquesne Systems, a start-up success that became Legent Corp. and eventually was acquired by Computer Associates. Among other local tech clients are medical device makers Respironics and Medrad and biotech incubator LaunchCyte.

And it's still got its hand in the older industrial companies such as Bayer Corp. and PPG Industries that constantly in-vent new technologies. "The fact is that the major corporations in the area continue to be the developers of technology," said Orkin. "More patents are issued to the old stand-bys than to the start-ups."

With 26 lawyers and two patent agents on staff, Webb is the only firm in Pittsburgh that devotes its practice to patents and trademarks. Total staff is 75.

"No other firm of that size ... has all lawyers with an intellectual property background," said David Blaner, executive director of the Allegheny County Bar Association (ACBA).

All of the city's large law practices have lawyers who that specialize in intellectual property works and many lawyers pursue the speciality in solo practice, Blaner said. "But if there's one firm that specializes in it, it's Webb ... they have a long history of working through the intellectual property and patent issues with the storied companies in Pittsburgh."

To provide technical as well as legal expertise to its clients, Webb's lawyers hold specialized degrees in areas ranging from microbiology to computer science. In fact, lawyers who want to be licensed in front of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office are required to have a technical background.

Orkin, for instance, has a bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering and worked for Indiana-based Inland Steel before he joined Webb.

Not only is Webb involved in state-of-the-art local and international technology, it also has a cutting-edge work culture, according to the ACBA, which gave Webb its "Quality of Life Award" in 2002. The local bar honored Webb for an atmosphere that promotes a healthy work-life balance by offering benefits including reduced work schedules, leaves of absence and events that allow lawyers and support staff to socialize frequently.