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Outlier Patent Attorneys: The San Antonio Firm Founded by the Lawyer Who Wrote Palm’s First PalmPilot Patent

Samar Shah drafted his first patent application for Palm’s original PalmPilot PDA while still a second-year law student — then spent the next decade writing patents and building portfolio strategy for Facebook and Google before returning to San Antonio to found what is now Outlier Patent Attorneys, a firm that publishes its own allowance-rate data against the software industry average.

Origin and Background

Outlier Patent Attorneys, PLLC is located at 110 E. Houston St., 7th Floor, San Antonio, TX 78205, confirmed through the firm’s own website, which describes the office as “San Antonio Based & Proud of It.” Founder Samar Shah holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and a Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law, is registered before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and is licensed in Texas. The firm was founded in 2017 as Shah IP Law before later rebranding to Outlier Patent Attorneys. Prior to founding the firm, Shah wrote patents at Fenwick & West and litigated patents at Paul Hastings and at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he represented clients including Blackberry and Acelity/KCI in district courts and before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Practice Concentration

The firm concentrates on patent strategy and prosecution for startups and established technology companies, with particular depth in medical device, software, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and vending-system patents, and has also handled post-grant proceedings including inter partes review and reexamination. The firm’s own published metrics claim a roughly 90 percent patent allowance rate against a reported 64 percent industry average in the software space, and an average of 1.7 rejections before allowance against a reported 4.2 industry average — self-reported figures rather than independently audited data. See this San Antonio Intellectual Property directory for how this data-driven prosecution boutique compares to litigation-focused firms and large-firm satellite offices also serving Bexar County.

Notable Work / Track Record

Shah has written patents and developed patent portfolio strategy for major technology companies including Facebook and Google during his time at large firms, and has litigated patents on behalf of Blackberry and Acelity/KCI. The firm’s own site attributes a specific client patent in the UAV space to a valuation representing a 100x return on investment, and cites named client testimonials from the CEOs of Quickpath AI, PorchPass, and Allosense describing measurable cost savings and fewer patent office rejections. Awesome Attorneys did not independently verify these client-specific figures beyond the firm’s own published sourcing.

Client Voice

The firm holds a 4.9-star aggregate rating on TrustAnalytica and generally positive reviews on Yelp and Lawyer.com, with clients specifically praising Shah’s technical depth and ability to identify patentable subject matter in initial consultations. Awesome Attorneys did not identify a documented pattern of negative reviews warranting disclosure.

Beyond the Courtroom

Shah serves on the board of directors of San Antonio Youth Code Jam, a nonprofit that introduces elementary through high school students to computer science, and the firm provides free monthly patent mentoring sessions at Geekdom and LaunchSA and has given patent education talks for Alamo Inventors. Shah was named to the San Antonio Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list.

Recognition for This San Antonio IP Attorney

Awesome Attorneys did not identify Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification for Samar Shah and does not apply “specialist” language on that basis — and separately notes that TBLS does not currently certify a distinct intellectual property specialty in Texas at all. Shah’s recognition instead rests on Rising Star selections from both Texas Super Lawyers and Northern California Super Lawyers, a Martindale-Hubbell Client Champion designation, a Lexology Client Choice Award, and San Antonio Scene magazine’s Best IP Attorneys and Best Lawyers recognitions.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Patent prosecution and post-grant proceedings like inter partes review, a documented part of this firm’s practice, proceed under federal law before the USPTO and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board rather than Texas state law, which is why USPTO registration is the threshold qualification for this work. Startups filing patents in Texas should also be aware that provisional patent applications establish only a one-year priority window before a non-provisional application must be filed to preserve that priority date. None of this is legal advice; a specific patent strategy or prosecution matter should be evaluated by a licensed, USPTO-registered attorney based on the actual facts involved.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Outlier Patent Attorneys’ clearest differentiator is a founder with big-firm patent litigation and prosecution credentials, including work for Facebook, Google, and Blackberry, now applied through a data-driven prosecution practice that publishes its own allowance-rate benchmarks against industry averages. The honest trade-off is that those benchmark figures are self-reported rather than independently audited, and the firm has expanded to a multi-city model with offices beyond San Antonio, which may mean less exclusively local attention than a single-office boutique. For a San Antonio startup or established tech company that wants patent counsel with documented big-firm pedigree and a business-outcomes-first approach to prosecution strategy, that combination is a reasonable basis for a shortlist.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from Outlier Patent Attorneys’ own website (team, results, approach, and San Antonio location pages), Samar Shah’s Super Lawyers and BBB listings, the San Antonio Report’s coverage of the firm’s 2017 launch as Shah IP Law, and IPWatchdog’s coverage of the firm’s founding.

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 Outlier Patent Attorneys, PLLC 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.