Jason Howard

Jason O. Howard helps clients build patent portfolios by capturing internal inventive efforts and assessing the strength of patents available for acquisition. He has conducted numerous patent harvests that identify inventions made during the development of a new product that might otherwise be missed.

Jason’s clients have turned to him again and again because of his reputation for collaboration with inventors and the thorough understanding of their technologies that he has developed over the years.

Jason develops patent landscape studies that explain the relative strengths of patent portfolios within a technology segment. A patent landscape can be used to direct a client’s resources into valuable spaces within a technology segment, such as areas with limited patent activity where patents with broad coverage may be obtained.

A landscape can also be used to understand a client’s potential exposure within a technology space by identifying the patent holders that have the strongest positions in a space.

As a hobby, Jason served as an adjunct professor at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. Jason taught a patent law survey class, which explored the foundations of patent law including subject matter eligibility, utility, enablement, novelty, non-obviousness, infringement and remedies.

He also taught a patent prosecution class, focusing especially on preparing for the Patent Bar and providing practical experience drafting claims, drafting a clearance opinion and responding to USPTO actions. The Patent Bar preparation portion of the patent prosecution class focused on MPEP sections 700 and 2100.

Before joining Shook, Jason worked for five years as an engineer for a chemical manufacturing corporation. In his engineering role, Jason performed process optimization work for chemical manufacturing operations, project and construction management for various chemical manufacturing operations, and environmental compliance work.

Jason developed expertise working with heat exchangers, distillation columns, cooling towers, pumps, motors, boilers, furnaces, packaging equipment, environmental treatment systems and steam condensate recovery systems, among other technologies.

Education:

• J.D., summa cum laude, Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis, 2006
• B.S., Purdue University, 1996 (Civil Engineering)

Bar Admissions:

• Kansas
• Missouri
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Memberships:

• Kansas Bar Association, Intellectual Property Section, Former President; Former Legislative Liaison and CLE Director
• Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association