Thomas (TJ) Gohn

TJ focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation and has represented clients in patent, copyright, and trademark disputes. His experience spans a variety of industries and technologies, including electronics, two-factor authentication, computer rendering, and data and signal processing.

Before joining Maier and Maier, TJ litigated intellectual property cases defending against non-practicing entities and provided IP counsel for mergers and acquisitions. He also practiced in the Middle East litigating international regulatory and diplomatic disputes.

TJ is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Experience:

  • Defense of national banks in the Eastern District of Texas relating to claims of infringement of two-factor authentication patent; obtained favorable settlement.
  • Assertion of valve and pump technology patents for oil and gas company in the Northern District of Texas; case resulted in favorable settlement.
  • Defense of large hospitality company in the Eastern District of Texas relating to claims of infringement of patents for website suggested search technology; obtained favorable settlement.
  • Assertion of trademark claims for bespoke software developer in District of Massachusetts; case resulted in favorable settlement for client with defendant agreeing to change name.
  • Defense of major western wear client against right of publicity claim in Eastern District of Arkansas; resulted in favorable settlement.
  • Defense of prolific marketing analytics company; obtained favorable settlement of patent infringement claims brought in the Eastern District of Texas.
  • Defense of one of the world’s largest computer manufacturers; obtained settlement of patent infringement claims brought in the International Trade Commission.
  • Defense of marketing firm in copyright infringement case; obtained favorable settlement.
  • Pro Bono representation of veteran in consumer protection lawsuit brought in Texas state court. Case resulted in favorable settlement with defendant agreeing to pay all client damages.

Kazuyuki Nakai

Kazuyuki Nakai is a highly experienced Japanese Patent Attorney and intellectual property specialist. Mr. Nakai’s experience includes all aspects of intellectual property law, including patent and trademark portfolio management.  Prior to joining Maier & Maier, Mr. Nakai served as in-house counsel and intellectual property manager for a multi-national corporation. In his prior roles, Mr. Nakai has been in charge of administration of patent and trademark rights, developing strong intellectual property positions, soliciting new inventions for protection and commercialization, intellectual property training and coordination with engineers and business units, as well as preparing intellectual property related reports, opinions, and searches. Before entering the intellectual property field, Mr. Nakai worked as a sound engineer in the United States and Japan.

Mr. Nakai is a Japanese Patent Attorney and he obtained his Bachelor of Economics degree from Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan.

Kathleen Cooney-Porter

Ms. Cooney-Porter has practiced Trademark law for almost 30 years. Most recently, she worked as a consultant providing expert advice on trademark prosecution, trademark evaluation, trademark branding, and managing outside counsel for a California-based start-up.

Prior to her position as a consultant, she was appointed as Senior Trademark Advisor to the Office of the Under Secretary and Director of The United States Patent and Trademark Office.  While serving in this role, she participated in the Under Secretary’s external and internal meetings on a regular and recurring basis ensuring that the views of the Under Secretary were communicated in an accurate, consistent, and professional manner. She also partnered with USPTO Business Units to ensure Under Secretary’s vision and goals were considered when creating and implementing trademark programs and policies and built alliances and consensus by sharing knowledge and responding to, addressing, and elevating high level concerns promptly. Ms. Cooney-Porter also worked with Department of Commerce, other Administration agencies and Congress to ensure that all groups were notified timely and provided accurate pre-briefs, as necessary, concerning any significant agency announcements. She reviewed Solicitor’ s briefs prior to filing with Federal Circuit and consulted with Solicitor’s Office and Department of Justice on two significant Supreme Court cases. She reviewed all documents pertaining to any trademark matter including but not limited to operations, examination, trademark rules of practice, legal briefs, and memoranda for final review by the Under Secretary. She assisted Trademark Operations on several anti-counterfeiting efforts and policies including negotiations with the National Crime Prevention Council on a 5-year joint project to educate the public of dangers of counterfeits. Contract signed Fall 2020. She attended the Office of Policy and International Affairs (OPIA) round table with other government officials on anti-counterfeiting efforts and policies.

Prior to her position at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, she was a Principal at Muncy, Geissler, Olds & Lowe, P.C., since 2016, advising clients on how to enhance, secure, leverage and enforce their marks and brand portfolio, and as a Managing Partner at Oblon, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.C., where she managed the Trademark and Copyright practice groups and represented clients before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).

During her tenure in private practice, Ms. Cooney-Porter served a three-year term as an appointee to the USPTO’s Trademark Public Advisory Committee (TPAC) where she advised the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the Director of the USPTO on matters relating to trademark policies, goals, performance, budget and user fees.

Prior to working in private practice, Ms. Cooney-Porter worked as a Trademark Examining Attorney for over eight years.

Ms. Cooney-Porter has a Bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. She resides in McLean, Virginia with her husband and twin teenage daughters.

Surinder (Sach) Sachar

Surinder (Sach) Sachar is a partner and electrical technology patent attorney.

A former Patent Examiner with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Mr. Sachar handles patents from application through prosecution and has extensive experience in all aspects of patent prosecution, including bringing cases before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

An electrical engineer by training, he has worked with high-technology inventions, including high-density optical recording devices and systems, semiconductors, displays, medical instruments, ultrasound devices, mobile communications systems, computers, TVs, consumer electronics, image forming equipment, and telecommunications devices.

For the past 33 years, Mr. Sachar has represented several leading global electronics companies headquartered in Japan helping to protect the intellectual property portfolios of their diverse technologies.

Mr. Sachar also offers opinions and counsels clients on the full range of patent issues, including the interplay of patents, methods to garner strategic and broad patent portfolio protection, and how to avoid infringement of competitor patents. With experience at the USPTO, where he specialized in the fields of magnetic and optical recording systems, Mr. Sachar understands its inner workings and possesses the depth of knowledge, experience, and success to craft the broadest enforceable patents to serve his clients’ business needs.

Michael R. Casey, Ph.D.

Michael R. Casey, Ph.D., is a partner with more than 25 years of experience in patent law including patent litigation, patent prosecution, post grant proceedings, and patent interferences. His practice focuses on all aspects of computer hardware and software, as well as circuit design and telecommunications.

Dr. Casey is experienced representing and counseling electronics and computer-technology clients — both foreign and domestic — on intellectual property law and related issues, including procurement, valuation, licensing and enforcement of intellectual property. His representations include patent litigations before a number of Federal District Courts; appellate arguments before the Federal Circuit; International Arbitrations; post-grant proceedings (including IPRs and CBMs); preparation of patent opinions relating to invalidity, non-infringement, and product clearances; patent preparation and prosecution (U.S. and foreign); and patent interferences.

Dr. Casey earned advanced degrees based on his research in Electrical and/or Computer Engineering, and is a co-author on numerous papers in the areas of distributed, heterogeneous, and mobile computing systems and operating system designs.

Dr. Casey’s technical background covers a variety computer-related technologies and medical device equipment. In the computer field, Dr. Casey’s experience includes circuit design (including parallel processing architectures and field programmable gate arrays); computational intelligence systems (including artificial intelligence (AI), neural networks, bioinformatics, and fuzzy logic), encryption software and applications (including blockchain, digital rights management (DRM) and PKI), computer networking software, hardware and algorithms, electronic commerce, computer graphics and animation, communications algorithms and hardware, and programming languages and methodologies. In the medical device field, Dr. Casey has represented clients in the fields of IV pumps and catheters for guidewires.

Michael J. Collins

Michael Collins has twenty-nine years of experience litigating patent, trade secret, unfair competition and other technology-related matters. In recent years, his practice has concentrated on patent litigation, representing both patent owners and defendants in federal district courts throughout the country. He has also represented clients in post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Section 337 investigations before the International Trade Commission and appeals before the Federal Circuit. In addition to patent litigation, Michael has substantial experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in trade secret matters in the state courts of both Texas and Florida. He was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” in the area of Intellectual Property Litigation in each of the years from 2013 through 2018.

Michael has handled cases involving a wide range of technologies, including semiconductors, oil and gas production, materials science, software, consumer electronics, wireless telecommunications systems, LED display panels, vehicle location tracking, optics, building structures, medical devices, food processing, transportation, conventional and nuclear power, petrochemicals, industrial valves, combined cycle gas turbines, petrochemical catalyst handling methods, corrugated packaging, and flywheel energy storage systems.

Dennis Ahearn

Dennis Ahearn is senior counsel for Maier and Maier.  Previously, Dennis was IP and Technology Law Counsel at Science Applications International Corporation (“SAIC”), Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property and Technology Law at Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Chief IP Counsel at COMSAT Corporation.  Dennis has a wealth of experience in procuring, managing and enforcing intellectual property rights globally for these and other corporations in major technical areas, and in data rights in Government Contracts, Government cyber-security requirements, IP rights in mergers and acquisitions and other transactions, Open Source Software acquisition, usage and licensing, trademark portfolio development and management, internet usage, and litigation management.  Additionally, Dennis is highly experienced in providing IP development, protection, usage, licensing, sale, and other monetization counsel.  His areas of interest include aerospace and defense, advanced telecommunications, commercial space activities, artificial intelligence and robotics, alternative energy, and internet activities and cyber-security. Dennis received his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from Yale, completed his J.D. at the University of San Francisco and served in the U. S. Air Force before beginning his law career.

Stephen Kunin

Mr. Kunin is a Partner at Maier & Maier PLLC, where he specializes in all areas of patent practice. His expertise includes post-issuance proceedings at the United States Patent Office, opinions of counsel, advising attorneys and our clients on complex patent prosecution matters, patent litigation strategy, and United States Patent Office patent policy, practice and procedure, for which he is highly sought after for expert testimony. Mr. Kunin has presented expert testimony covering numerous subjects, including:

  1. Duty of candor and good faith (inequitable conduct)
  2. Subject matter eligibility and utility
  3. Restriction practice and double patenting
  4. Inventorship
  5. Declaration/affidavit practice
  6. Certificates of correction
  7. Petitions practice
  8. Reexamination and reissue
  9. Interferences
  10. Ownership
  11. Statutory disclaimers
  12. Written description
  13. Date of public availability of abandoned applications referenced in prior art publications
  14. Prosecution laches
  15. Right of priority under Paris Convention

In addition to serving as an expert witness, Mr. Kunin has vast experience in providing lectures on recent US patent law developments across the USA, Europe and the Far East.  He has more than 52 years of experience in the patent profession.

After graduating from Washington University (MO) with a Bachelor’s in Science in Electrical Engineering with honors in 1970, Mr. Kunin embarked on his lengthy career over nearly 35 years at the United States Patent Office. He received his JD in law degree with honors in 1975 from The National Law Center at George Washington University. He held many significant positions with the USPTO, which culminated with ten years of service as the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy from 1994-2004. While at the USPTO, he was a leading voice in forming patent policy, in revising examination guidelines on subject matter eligibility, utility, non-obviousness and written description, and in establishing reissue and reexamination procedures. Mr. Kunin spearheaded revisions to the Rules of Practice and Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, making key changes to chapters on ex parte reexamination, reissue, and inter partes reexamination.

Since leaving the PTO, Mr. Kunin has been a practicing patent attorney for more than 18 years counseling clients in post-grant patent proceedings at the USPTO and routinely serves as an expert witness in patent litigation cases. He is a registered patent attorney with the USPTO, and admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and before the United States Supreme Court. From 2005 through 2017, Mr. Kunin served as the Intellectual Property Program Director at the Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University, while teaching patent and intellectual property law classes as an adjunct professor of law.

Recognitions and Awards

Over the course of his illustrious career, Mr. Kunin has received many notable awards, including the Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award, The Vice President’s Reinventing Government Hammer Award, four Gold Medals, three Silver Medals, and one Bronze Medal from the Department of Commerce, and a Career Achievement Award from the USPTO. He has been named one of Intellectual Property Today’s most influential people in IP law, he was recognized by IAM Patent 1000 in the field of Patent Law, and he has been named among both Best Lawyers and International Advisory Experts leading attorneys in the field of Intellectual Property.

Most recently:

  • Mr. Kunin was recently included in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for Patent Law.
  • Mr. Kunin was also included in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for Patent Law.
  • In June of 2022 he was again named one of Managing Intellectual Property’s “IP stars.”
  • Mr. Kunin has been selected as a 2022 Go To Intellectual Property Lawyer by Virginia Lawyers Weekly and his profile is set to appear in the September 26, 2022 issue of Virginia Lawyers Weekly.
  • On August 18, 2022, Mr. Kunin was selected by his peers for recognition of professional excellence in the 29th edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for work in Patent Law.

Representative Patent Expert Witness Engagements

  • Allergan Sales* v. Sandoz, (Civil Action No. 2 :17-cv-10129-CCC-MF), United States District Court for the District of New Jersey [report & deposition]
  • Amarin Pharma* v. Hikma Pharms, (Case No. 2 :16-cv-02525-MMD-NJK), United States District Court, District of Nevada [rebuttal report & deposition]
  • AstraZeneca Canada, Inc. v. Teva Canada Ltd*, (Case No. T-592-21), Canadian Federal Court (Ottawa), [report]
  • Beacon Point Capital v. Philips Electronics North America* (AAA Case No. 50-20-0700-0029), American Arbitration Association [report, deposition, and arbitration hearing]
  • bioMerieux v, Hologic et al.*(Civil Action No. 18-21-LPS-CJB), United States District Court for the District of Delaware [reply report & deposition]
  • Black Horse Capital* v. Auxilium Pharms., Inc., (AAA Case No. 01-20-000-3951), American Arbitration Association [report]
  • Boehringer Ingelheim Pharms, Inc.* v. Aurobindo Pharms USA, Inc. et al. (Civil Action No. 17-7887 (MAS)(LHG), United States District Court for the District of New Jersey [report & deposition]
  • Boston Scientific Corp., Inc.* v. Cook Group, Inc. et al. (Civil Action No. 1:17-cv-03448-JRS-MJD, United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division [report & deposition]
  • Comcast Cable Communications, LLC* v. Rovi Guides, Inc., Inter Partes Review No, IPR2020-00787, USPTO PTAB [declaration]
  • DRIT LP* v. Glaxo Group Limited and Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (C.A. No. N16C-07-218 WCC CCLD), Superior Court of the State of Delaware [report, deposition & trial]
  • Genzyme Corp.* v. Synpac (AAA ICDR Case No. 01-20-000o-5081), American Arbitration Association [report, rebuttal report & Arbitration Hearing]
  • Gilbert P. Hyatt v. Joseph Matal*, (Civil Action Nos.: 1:09-cv-1864 (RCL), 1:09-cv-1869 (RCL), 1:09-cv-1872 (RCL) and 1:05-cv-2310 (RCL)), United States District Court, District of Columbia [report, rebuttal report deposition & trial]
  • Immunex Corporation, Amgen Manufacturing, Limited and Hoffman-La Roche Inc.* v. Sandoz Inc., Sandoz International GMBH and Sandoz GMBH, (Civil Action No. 2:16-cv-01118-CCC-MF), United States District Court for the District of New Jersey [report, deposition & trial]
  • In re Biogen ’755 Patent Litigation, Civil Action No. 2:10-cv-02734 (CCC)(JBC), United States District Court, District of New Jersey [report for EMD Serono, Inc. and Pfizer, Inc.* and deposition]
  • In re Certain Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems, ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1228, United States International Trade Commission, Washington, D.C. [report for Ocado*, deposition, witness statement & trial]
  • In re Certain Knitted Footware, ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1289, United States International Trade Commission, Washington, D.C. [report for Nike*]
  • In re Certain Vehicle Control Systems, Vehicles Containing the Same and Components Thereof, ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1235, United States International Trade Commission, Washington, D.C. [report for Porsche & VW* & deposition]
  • Lear* v. NHK Seating, (Case No. 2:18-cv-10613-LJM-RSW), United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division [report, deposition & declaration]
  • Magna Mirrors of America* v. SMR Automotive Systems, (C.A. No. 1:17-cv-00077-RJJ-PJG), United States District Court, Western District of Michigan [report & deposition]
  • Manufacturing Resources, Inc v. Civiq Smartscapes, LLC*, (Civil Action No. 17-269-RGA), United States District Court for the District of Delaware [report, reply report & deposition]
  • MasterObjects, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.*, (Case No. 3:20-cv-08103-WHA), United States District Court for the Northern District of California [report & deposition]
  • Merial, Inc. v. Intervet International B.V.*, (Case No. 0047402-78.2018.4.02.5101), 31 Vara Federal da Secao Judiciaria do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) [declaration]
  • nCap Licensing, LLC v. Apple, Inc.*, (Case No. 2:17-cv-00905), United States District Court, District of Utah, Central Division [report]
  • Novartis* v. Regeneron, (Case No. 1:18-cv-0234-DLC), United States District Court, Southern District of New York [report & deposition]
  • NuVasive, Inc.* v. Alphatec Holdings, Inc., (Case No. 3:18-cv-00347-CAB-MDD), United States District Court, Southern District of California, San Diego Division [report & deposition]
  • Omni MedSci, Inc. v. Apple, Inc.*, (Case No. 2:18-cv-00134), United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas [report]
  • Palomar Techs.* v. MSRI Systems, (Civil Action No. 1:18-cv-10236-FDS), United States District Court, District of Massachusetts [report, deposition, and trial]
  • Ravgen, Inc*. v. Quest Diagnostics, Inc., (Case No. 2:21-09011-RGK (GJSx)), United States District Court, Central District of California [report & deposition]
  • Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, Genzyme Corp., and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Immunex Corporation* (Case IPR2017-01879), United States Patent and Trademark Office, before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board [declaration]
  • Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, Genzyme Corp., and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Immunex Corporation* (Case IPR2017-01884), United States Patent and Trademark Office, before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board [declaration]
  • E. Fred Schubert v. Lumileds, LLC*, (Case No. 1:12-cv-924-MN), United States District Court, District of Delaware [report & deposition]
  • Semicaps PTE LTD v. Hamamatsu Corporation et al. (Case No. 17-cv-03440-DMR), United States District Court, Northern District of California [rebuttal report]
  • The Sherwin-Williams Co. v. PPG Industries, Inc.*, (Case No. 2:17-cv-01023-JFC), United States District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania [report & deposition]
  • Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., LTD* v. Natco Pharma LTD et al., (Civil Action No. 19-2368-CFC), United States District Court, District of Delaware [report; supplemental report & deposition]
  • Trading Technologies International, Inc.* v. IBG LLC et al., (Case No. 1:10-CV-00715), United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division [report & deposition]
  • Trading Technologies International, Inc.* v. IBG LLC et al., (Case No. 1:10-CV-00715), United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division [report & deposition]
  • Ultravision Techs., LLC v. Samsung Elecs., Co. et al*., (Case No. 2:19-CV-00252-JRG-RSP), United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division [report]
  • W.R. Grace, Inc.* v. Elysium Health, (C.A. No. 1:20-1098-CFC-JLH), United States District Court, District of Delaware [report]
  • Zest Labs, Inc. v. Walmart, Inc.*, (Case No. 4;18-cv-00500-JM, United States District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas [report, deposition & declaration]

Timothy J. Maier

Mr. Maier is a registered Patent Attorney and practices all aspects of Intellectual Property Law. Mr. Maier’s practice includes patent preparation and prosecution; patent and trademark litigation; design patents, trademark oppositions, patent reissue and reexamination proceedings; interference practice; strategic domestic and international patent and trademark portfolio development and management; patentability, validity, invalidity, infringement, freedom to operate, design around opinions and counseling, patent portfolio landscape analysis and due diligence opinions. Mr. Maier’s technical expertise includes various aspects of electrical engineering, electro-mechanical, mechanical, industrial, wireless technology, software enabled systems, financial systems and telecommunication engineering. Mr. Maier has serviced clients in highly competitive technical areas, including, medical devices, RFID technology, financial products, telecommunications, consumer electronics, cosmetic devices, packaging, semiconductors, e-commerce software, optics, and business methods.

Mr. Maier’s experience and expertise most recently has focused on providing a range of patent services to clients and developing patent strategies that complement the client’s business objectives. In particular, he enjoys developing and managing patent portfolios for the world market, for both start-up, middle market and Fortune 500 companies. To this end, he also analyzes competitors’ patent portfolios and products to counsel clients regarding enhancement and enforcement of their patent portfolio, potential investment of contemplated products, strategic design-around, and acquisition of technology.

Prior to founding Maier & Maier PLLC , Mr. Maier was formerly an attorney with Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C. .

Mr. Maier received his Bachelor of Science from Vanderbilt University and Masters in Telecommunications Engineering from George Mason University School of Engineering and his Law degree from George Mason University School of Law. Mr. Maier completed the Intellectual Property Law sequence while attending George Mason University School of Law, an intense concentration in intellectual property law.

Mr. Maier is licensed to practice before the United States Patent Office, Supreme Court of Virginia, Eastern District Court of Virginia, and the Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar (VSB), American Bar Association (ABA Patents, Trademarks and Copyright Divisions), Licensing Executives Society (LES), Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle (AIPPI, published articles) and American Intellectual Property Association (AIPLA, elected to two year committee term).

Currently Mr. Maier is a faculty member with Patent Resource Group, providing lectures around the United States to broad audiences on patent prosecution and enforcement in Asian countries, including Japan, Korea and China. and is an author for www.postgrant.com , a leading intellectual property law blog .

Christopher J. Maier

Chris Maier is a registered patent attorney and practices all aspects of patent prosecution and patent litigation, including inter partes review proceedings and ex parte reexamination at the USPTO, international patent portfolio development and management, and opinion work. Chris has experience working across a variety of technologies, including electrical and computer engineering, software, mechanical engineering, and medical device technologies.

Prior to becoming a patent attorney Chris worked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as a patent examiner. Chris specialized in flat panel display technology as well as associated device driving software and computer control and peripheral devices.

Chris is a frequent lecturer on the latest strategies and trends in intellectual property for both U.S. and international audiences. Chris previously acted as a committee chair for the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and as delegate for numerous AIPLA domestic and international meetings. Additionally, he previously served as a faculty member for the Patent Resources Group (PRG).