Rick represents his clients in nearly every aspect of intellectual property law, including prosecution, litigation, licensing, and post-grant procedures.
Prosecution
Rick leverages his electrical engineering degree, his background in cryptology, and his litigation expertise to prepare and prosecute patent applications in a wide range of technology fields, including: cryptocurrency, blockchain, semiconductor, augmented reality, VTOL, aircraft, rotorcraft, and control systems, among others. He also counsels his clients regarding their international intellectual property portfolios, and serves as “outside” in-house IP counsel for a corporation. His clients also rely on him to draft Freedom-to-Operate opinion letters, as well as conduct and analyze patentability and knock-out searches. Rick also prepares and prosecutes trademark applications before the USPTO. His practice also includes filing 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. His cases cover coast-to-coast, from California, to Texas, to Delaware. 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.
Post-Grant Procedures
Rick represents clients before the Patent Trademark and Appeal Board in Inter Partes Review, Reexamination, and Appeal proceedings. He also represents clients before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board 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.