my biography

I began my legal career after graduating in 1982 from George Washington University law school. My initial focus was on patent procurement. In 1986, I joined Hughes & Luce, LLP to manage the Firm's intellectual property practice. Between 1990 and 2000, I co-managed the Firm's IP practice group. I joined Akamai Technologies in August 2000 as Assistant General Counsel for Intellectual Property. After three years at Akamai, I returned to private practice in Dallas. I opened my law practice here in March, 2004.

I was admitted to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office in 1981. For the past 20+ years, I have written hundreds of patents for many companies and institutions including Akamai, MIT, IBM, and many others. Some of my representative patents are available here.

I have extensive experience in patent litigation. As lead counsel in Reedrill v Driltech, I obtained a $10 million jury verdict in the Eastern District of Texas, and that jury verdict was enhanced to a $16 million judgment that was later affirmed on appeal to the Federal Circuit. As in-house counsel, I managed Akamai Technologies, Inc. and MIT v. Cable & Wireless Internet Services, Inc. (D. Mass.). The Federal Circuit affirmed a jury verdict of infringement and a permanent injunction as to two of the asserted patent claims. I also have experience as lead counsel in Markman hearings, as well as in contested inter partes PTO proceedings such as interferences, and trademark oppositions and cancellations. I regularly provide product clearance advice as well as formal opinions regarding patent validity and infringement.

I also have extensive experience in negotiating contracts including patent licenses, technology transfers and licenses, software licenses, trademark licenses, sponsorship agreements, technology development agreements, outsourcing agreements, franchise agreements, joint venture agreements, e-commerce agreements, domain name agreements, and others. I frequently consult with clients on issues involving open source software.

I provide IP due diligence in corporate transactions. For example, I negotiated the intellectual property divestiture when General Motors sold EDS.

I also have extensive experience in trademark, copyright and trade secret law, including procurement, licensing and enforcement activities.

I received my Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from GWU with distinction in 1978. I have been licensed to practice in Texas since 1982.