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Katz Law Group: The Houston Patent Attorney Who Spent a Decade Inside ExxonMobil and Holds His Own U.S. Patent

Gary Katz spent nearly ten years as in-house patent counsel at ExxonMobil before opening his own Houston practice — and he is also a named inventor on a U.S. patent and the founder of a cleantech company whose water-scarcity technology earned federal SBIR awards and an XPRIZE milestone recognition.

At a Glance

Origin and Background

Gary Katz earned his B.S. from Rutgers University in 1996 and his J.D. from Rutgers School of Law–Newark in 1999, and holds bar admissions in New Jersey (1999), New York (2000), and Texas (2001), along with USPTO registration number 46,099. He joined ExxonMobil in 2000 as a patent attorney for the Upstream Research Company in Houston, drafting and prosecuting a worldwide patent docket, then transferred in 2005 to Downstream Research and Engineering, focusing on refining and chemical products, before leaving in 2010 to found Katz Law Group. His subsequent firm experience includes patent work with Matthews, Lawson, McCutcheon & Joseph, PLLC in Houston and FisherBroyles, LLP.

Practice Concentration

Katz’s prosecution practice concentrates in the technologies his ExxonMobil decade built fluency in — oil exploration, petroleum engineering, offshore technology, mechanical, chemical, and refining technology — extended to computer technology and cleantech, with several hundred patents filed and prosecuted across his career for clients ranging from technology startups to NYSE-listed companies. See this Houston Intellectual Property directory for how this in-house-trained solo practice compares to boutique and large-firm alternatives also serving Harris County.

Notable Work / Track Record

Katz’s most distinctive verifiable credential is unusual for any patent attorney: he is a named inventor on U.S. Patent No. 10,864,482 B2 and the founder and CEO of Katz Water Technologies, a Texas cleantech startup whose patented water-scarcity technology has been recognized with federal SBIR awards and an XPRIZE Water Scarcity milestone — meaning he has sat on the inventor’s side of the patent process, not only the attorney’s side. His firm reports several hundred patents filed and prosecuted; that volume figure is firm-reported rather than independently itemized by this profile.

Client Voice

An attributed client review published on the Alignable business network describes Katz as knowledgeable, personable, professional, and dependable — someone who “tells it straight and gets it done,” per the reviewing business owner. Awesome Attorneys did not identify a large volume of additional itemized platform reviews and discloses that directly.

Beyond the Courtroom

Katz’s parallel career as a cleantech founder is a documented, substantive commitment beyond legal practice: Katz Water Technologies addresses freshwater scarcity with patented technology, work recognized through the federal SBIR program and an XPRIZE milestone. That operating-company experience — budgets, fundraising, product development — is the kind of firsthand founder context most patent attorneys advise on secondhand.

Recognition for This Houston Patent Attorney

Awesome Attorneys did not identify a Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification for Gary Katz, and separately notes TBLS does not currently certify a distinct intellectual property specialty in Texas. His most substantial verifiable distinctions are structural rather than list-based: a decade of in-house tenure at one of the world’s largest corporations, USPTO registration, multi-state bar admissions, his own issued U.S. patent, and federally recognized startup awards.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Patent preparation and prosecution proceed under federal law before the USPTO rather than Texas state law, and patent disputes are heard in federal district court, while trade secret matters fall under the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act. None of this is legal advice; a specific patent or IP matter should be evaluated by a licensed attorney based on the actual facts involved.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Gary Katz’s clearest differentiator is that he has occupied every seat at the patent table — in-house counsel at ExxonMobil for a decade, outside counsel at firms large and small, and named inventor and startup CEO on his own patented technology — a triangulation of perspectives few Houston patent attorneys can claim. The honest trade-offs: his practice is solo-scale rather than institutional, his practice listing spans business and real estate matters beyond pure IP, and his public review footprint, while positive, is small. For a Houston energy-sector company or startup founder who wants patent counsel that has personally lived both the corporate docket and the inventor’s journey, that combination is a strong basis for a shortlist.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from Katz Law Group’s own website (katzlawgroupllc.com), the IP Nexus and Lawyers.com published attorney profiles documenting Katz’s ExxonMobil tenure and bar admissions, the Cornell Legal Information Institute directory listing including his patent number, and an attributed client review published on Alignable.

Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Katz Law Group, LLC or Gary Katz prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to attorneys and firms, including this one, but sponsorship has no bearing on the editorial content, inclusion, or findings of this profile.