Rick represents his clients in nearly every aspect of intellectual property law, including prosecution, litigation, licensing, and post-grant proceedings.
Prosecution
Patents: Rick leverages his training as an electrical engineering, his background in Navy cryptology, and his litigation expertise to prepare and prosecute patent applications in a wide range of technology fields, including: cryptocurrency, blockchain, machine learning, augmented reality, VTOL aircraft, drones, computer architecture, railroad technology, and control systems, among others. He also counsels his clients regarding their international intellectual property portfolios and serves as “outside” in-house IP counsel. His clients rely on him to draft Freedom-to-Operate and Non-Infringement opinions, as well as conduct and analyze patentability searches.
Trademarks: Rick leverages his creativity, as a former musician, and litigation experience to prepare and prosecute trademark applications before the USPTO. His trademark clients rely on him to conduct and analyze trademark and knock-out searches.
Copyright: Rick’s real-world work experience as a software coder and his musical background inform his filing of copyright registration applications and responding to copyright registration refusals from the U.S. Copyright Office.
Litigation
Bolstered by his prosecution expertise, Rick also represents both plaintiffs and defendants in the litigation of patents and trademarks in Federal Court. While in-house, he managed concurrent international patent litigation in several countries, including Germany, China, France, and Italy.
Licensing
Rick drafts and negotiates licenses and other agreements, such as patent license agreements, trademark license agreements, acquisition agreements, non-disclosure agreements, joint-development agreements, and common-interest agreements. He also represents clients in the entertainment industry, by drafting copyright assignment agreements and copyright license agreements, among others. Additionally, Rick applies his copyright knowledge to help clients legally and technically analyze Open Source Software (OSS) requirements and ensure compliance with various licenses, as well as establish OSS policies and procedures.
Post-Grant Procedures
Rick represents clients before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in Inter Partes Review, Reexamination, and Appeal proceedings. He also represents clients before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) in Cancellation and Opposition proceedings.
Technical Background
As an electrical engineer, Rick designed and commercialized signal processing and communication systems at companies such as Raytheon and SAIC. He has served in the U.S. Navy Reserve as a cryptologic officer, after having been selected for Direct Commission as an enlisted cryptologic petty officer – prior to which he was enlisted Army.
