As an attorney, the majority of John’s time has been devoted to patent procurement, or, getting patents for clients. In his time, he has drafted from scratch around 400 patent applications (utility and design). Those applications have been in a wide variety of technologies, and in the vast majority of cases have secured quality protection, both in the United States and abroad. He has also registered nearly 100 works with the United States Copyright Office and has been involved in the prosecution of around a dozen trademark applications. He has learned a lot about Intellectual Property Law over the years, particularly Patent Law, and is more fired up to protect innovators today than ever been before.
For the entirety of John’s eleven-year career since graduating from law school, 100% of his working time has been in the field of Intellectual Property Law. The first eight years were spent at Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC and The Webb Law Firm, both firms of which are in Pittsburgh, PA. The last three years have been at the firm he founded, The Powers IP Law Firm.
John attended law school at and earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Toledo, College of Law. He is licensed to practice law in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (e.g., he can represent inventors all over the world before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office). Before law school, John earned an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, cum laude, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was born and raised in Cleveland, OH, and excelled in math and science as a youth. While this led him to pursue an engineering degree at Michigan, toward the end of his undergraduate studies, his passions began to shift from engineering to protection.
For example, during laboratory experiments as an undergraduate, he realized that though this is a great world, if there were a new invention that were truly earth shattering, and the inventor was unprotected, people other than the inventor would seize the invention from the inventor without permission and without hesitation. He concluded that good inventions, if they have the ability to change the world, need protection. Shortly thereafter, he set his course for law school, and made it a mission to protect innovators.
Below are a few of the patents and patent publications that John has worked on over the years (for a more thorough listing of the technologies he has worked on, click here: Patent Procurement):
U.S.-Patent-Publication-No.-20190318835
Additionally, in his free time, John enjoys spending time with his wife, playing pickle ball and golf, Greek Dancing, reading, and writing. He also recently published a book of fables (link below), which includes a number of writings written using skills he learned as a patent draftsman.