Ann McCrackin is the President and Chief Business Development Officer for Black Hills IP as well as a patent prosecution process expert and a highly accomplished patent attorney with extensive experience in both U.S. and international patent prosecution.

Ann discusses the data services around docketing automation, both domestically and globally, interoperability with existing systems to have more higher efficiency to assist with IP paralegal professionals.

Before becoming President of Black Hills IP Ann was a Professor of Law and the Director of the nationally recognized Patent Prosecution and Procedure Program at Franklin Pierce Law Center (now the University of New Hampshire School of Law). At Franklin Pierce, Ann directed the program and taught courses in advanced aspects of practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Ann has also taught dozens of continuing legal education courses and seminars on various aspects of patent process and prosecution and has edited and authored a number of legal texts on patent law. Ann is also attorney of record for several Amicus Briefs filed in patent cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Ann was a Shareholder at the Minneapolis patent firm Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner, P.A. for eight years. Ann has an undergraduate degree from Iowa State University and a law degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center.