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), and has prosecuted thousands more. 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 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 twelve-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 four 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 inventors are unprotected, others will seize inventions from them without permission and without hesitation; and ordinary business competition will not provide a remedy. Shortly thereafter, he set his course for law school, and made it a mission to protect innovators. Samples of John’s work can be found by clicking here: Sample Patents, and a more thorough listing of the technologies he has worked on can be found by clicking here: Patent Procurement.

John is also passionate about helping ALL inventors (i.e., indigent inventors, and inventors of low and high value patentable inventions) benefit from the patent system, although at present these groups are either barred for financial reasons, or unable to trust the patent system for protective viability reasons. He is undertaking to reform the patent system, and a summary of his efforts can be found by clicking here: Patent Reform.

John also enjoys creative writing, and recently published a book of fable like poems: Unfinished Works.