World Class Patent Protection
Large Law Firm Patent Expertise at Reasonable Rates
World Class Patent Protection
Large Law Firm Patent Expertise at Reasonable Rates
A New Vision
About Mark Mathison
Patent Prosecution & Counseling
Patent Prosecution & Counseling
I have been licensed as a patent attorney for 16 years, half of that time as a partner at one of the largest intellectual property (IP) law firms in the world.
There, I wrote and prosecuted patent applications for multinational companies, both on teams with many other practitioners and with my own Fortune 500 client. I directly oversaw wo
I have been licensed as a patent attorney for 16 years, half of that time as a partner at one of the largest intellectual property (IP) law firms in the world.
There, I wrote and prosecuted patent applications for multinational companies, both on teams with many other practitioners and with my own Fortune 500 client. I directly oversaw work with small- and mid-size companies, including genuine Silicon Valley start ups. University technology transfer offices, with their unique requirements and startup ecosystems, were part of this mix.
Patent Prosecution & Counseling
Patent Prosecution & Counseling
Patent Prosecution & Counseling
A modern company's intellectual property is often its most critical asset. Patents on key ideas help protect it.
But one does not need a large law firm, and excessive rates, to ensure that patents aren't built out of sand. The most important qualities in a patent lawyer are his or her technological understanding of your ideas, and like-mindedness with your objectives.
Look Up Patents
Patent Prosecution & Counseling
Look Up Patents
Look up your own or a competitor's patents with a web site that I helped develop. It's a passion project to democratize intellectual property like Zillow®'s web site did for real property.
Hundreds of former colleagues rely on something like it at my old firm, but this one uses public data and is free. Click through and try "US 10,000,000"
A Few Thoughts
Offer to license?
Received a threatening letter with patent numbers, offering "to license"?
Sniff it out by entering the patent numbers in InterstellarIP.com. Check the family diagrams to see if the patents are all part of the same family.
If they are, then there is a good chance that their specifications and drawings are copies of one another. This means that it should be much less expensive to de
Look Up a Competitor's U.S. Patents
1. Go to USPTO Patent Assignment Search: https://assignment.uspto.gov/patent/index.html#/patent/search
2. Change dropdown to "Assignee Name."
3. Enter the competitor's name in the text box and search. Try different variations of the first part of the name.
4. Go to InterstellarIP.com (link above) and enter the patent or publication numbers.
5. See for yourself
Where to Foreign File?
When choosing which foreign countries in which to nationalize a PCT application, U.S. companies file in:
- Europe 56% of the time;
- China 45% of the time;
- Japan 27% of the time;
- Canada 25% of the time;
- Korea 21% of the time.
Read my article for further information at https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/where-to-enter-the-pct-national-phase-4149150/
To CIP or not to CIP?
The downsides of filing an improvement to an invention in a continuation-in-part (CIP) application as opposed to a new application are that the resulting patent term will be shortened, prosecution will deviate from foreign applications, and it admits that the improvement couldn't stand on its own. The upsides are that the base application may not be used as prior art, priorit
Where is Walnut Creek?
The City of Walnut Creek is considered part of the San Francisco Bay Area, which is in Northern California. It is 40 miles (64 km) from Silicon Valley and overlooked by Mount Diablo (hidden by snow clouds in the picture).
Actress Markie Post of the TV show Night Court, basketball star Steph Curry, and baseball pitcher Randy Johnson lived here.
And it's one town over from where
Mark's Experience
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, 2008-2023
UCLA Law - J.D. 2007
Raytheon - Electrical Engineer 1997-2004
Univ. of Washington - M.S. Aero. Engr. 1996
Harvey Mudd College - B.S. Engineering 1994
Licensed private pilot since 1999
Professional Engineer (Electrical), Calif., 2004
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 2005
State Bar of California, 2007
State Bar of Washington, 2008
U.S. Court of Appea