Howard Wisnia

Howard N. Wisnia has led litigation teams in a variety of patent infringement and other IP matters before Courts, the International Trade Commission (ITC) and arbitration panels. Howard also has extensive experience in post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

He has successfully litigated matters on behalf of clients in the medical device, financial, telecommunications, semiconductor, and software industries. Howard focuses his practice on IP disputes, including district court litigation, ITC investigations, post-grant proceedings, arbitrations, and coordinating multinational litigation matters.

In addition to his litigation experience, Howard has worked in patent matters for over 25 years as a patent examiner, and general counsel to a medical device company.

Howard also assists clients in litigation avoidance, including patent clearance studies, infringement and validity opinions, license negotiations, and strategic patent counseling. His varied experience before the. U.S. Patent Office, PTAB and foreign proceedings provides additional roads to success in major patent disputes.

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE :

• Successfully represented a manufacturer in a one-week arbitration concerning misuse of its patent and technical rights.
• Successfully defended sporting goods manufacturer’s two patents in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings before the PTO, with all claims upheld.
• Won a jury trial for an electronics company in its patent infringement action against Garmin International Inc. in the Eastern District of Texas. This was the first patent trial Garmin had ever lost.
• Represented international medical device company in asserting its visualization-related patent against a major manufacturer. Successfully settled.
• Lead trial counsel for a foreign television company in its $8.3 million jury verdict of copyright and trademark damages in the Central District of California.
• For same client, successfully defended and settled the largest bank-related patent litigation in U.S. history.

Associations :

• State Bar of California
• American Bar Association
• San Diego Intellectual Property Law Association
• Federal Circuit Bar Association

EDUCATION :

• J.D., The George Washington University Law School, 1996
• B.S., Electrical Engineering, The George Washington University, 1991

ADMISSIONS :

• California
• United States Patent and Trademark Office

COURTS :

• U.S. District Court, Northern, Eastern, Southern and Central Districts of California
• U.S. Courts of Appeals, Ninth Circuit and Federal Circuit
• U.S. International Trade Commission