Cozen O’Connor adds eight to new Colorado office
Cozen O’Connor has enlisted eight IP professionals from Lathrop GPM who will all be based in the firm’s new office in Boulder, Colorado.
The group comprises IP attorneys Curtis Vock, Douglas Link, Peter Chen, and Steve Barton; patent agents Brian Schwartz, Daniel Farkas, and Rebecca "Becky" Rudolph; and tech specialist Perry Youngs.
“The strategic benefits of having an office in Boulder are two-fold,” said Michael Heller, Cozen O’Connor’s executive chairman and CEO.
“First and foremost, it will serve as a home base to a remarkably successful, well-established team of IP professionals who will help us continue to grow our IP practice, especially on the international front.
“At the same time, adding an office in Boulder further expands our presence and reach in Colorado and the Mountain West, both of which are an important part of our expansion strategy.”
Curtis Vock joins as a shareholder and will serve as the managing partner of the Boulder office. As direct US IP counsel for a range of US, Canadian, European, Japanese, Chinese, and Australian clients, he focuses on IP strategy, patent prosecution and litigation, licensing, brand and trademark issues, and corporate counselling.
His 30-plus years of IP experience encompasses a range of technologies, from wearable activity devices to complex CMOS focal planes and blockchain delivery software. Before becoming a lawyer, he worked as a design and systems engineer with industrial stalwarts BAE Systems, Lockheed-Martin, Loral, Honeywell, and Hughes Aircraft.
“I’m very pleased to be joining Cozen O’Connor and being a part of such a robust intellectual property practice,” Vock said. “Cozen O’Connor is a growing, cutting-edge firm, and my team of attorneys, agents, and staff is genuinely excited to be a part of the IP department.
“Cozen O’Connor has an environment that will benefit not only our team but our clients as well. I’m very much looking forward to working with Camille and Kerry McTigue to help further expand our IP practice.”
Douglas Link, who joins as a member, focuses his practice on patent prosecution and post-AIA review proceedings. Leveraging an electrical engineering background, he helps clients secure IP protection for electrical and software-related patents affecting a range of technologies, from quantum computing to financial processing automotive components, antenna systems, and optical guidance systems.
He regularly manages cases involving software patents facing the Alice test related to subject matter eligibility; and has substantial post-AIA invalidity review proceedings experience at the US Patents and Trademarks Office. He also counsels clients on corporate IP management, patent portfolio management, and federal litigation infringement claims and defence.
Peter Chen who joins the firm as a member, focuses on patent, trademark, and copyright issues, including counselling, patent prosecution, and litigation. He helps clients procure patents for products ranging from biologics and chemical synthesis to biomass processing and artificial intelligence.
Steve Barton, who joins as of counsel, crafts and prosecutes patents on behalf of university and technology clients, including medical instrumentation and devices to computer hardware and software architecture.
Brian Schwartz, who joins as a patent agent, counsels on matters related to physics and optical engineering, with an emphasis on numerical simulations of photonic technologies such as CMOS image sensor pixels and photonic-crystal waveguides.
Daniel Farkas, who joins as a patent agent, is an experimental physicist with laboratory experience in atomic, molecular, and optical physics. Focusing on managing technical research and development projects, he advises on a host of technologies, including lasers and optics, photonics, quantum, vacuum systems, magnetics, electronics, and software.
Becky Rudolph, who joins as a patent agent, brings a background in electrical and computer engineering. Working with corporate clients and individual inventors, she has extensive experience with satellite systems, UAVs, nanomaterials, cell phone systems, optical fibres, communication protocols, and circuitry. Rudolph was a former primary patent examiner in computer and memory architecture with the USPTO.
Perry Youngs, a tech specialist, brings more than 30 years experience in diversified technologies, including software/hardware design and development, firmware, and mechanical/electrical device engineering.
Camille Miller, co-chair of the firm’s IP Department, said: “Collectively, these eight professionals bring diverse IP backgrounds and decades of relevant experience as counsel, IP advisers, and/or government regulators.
“They’ve been working together for years, counselling a range of domestic and international clients on all aspects of patent, trademark, copyright, trade secrets, and unfair competition—from clearance and procurement to litigation.
“Their addition underscores Cozen O’Connor’s commitment to the further expansion of our IP practice and the services we provide, and I’m very much looking forward to working with them.”
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