Holland & Knight Expands Leading National IP Litigation Practice
February 15, 2005
James Harold "Jim" Laughlin- Washington
John Paul Moran - Washington
Addition of three noted Intellectual Property attorneys to
firm's Washington DC office
Washington, D.C. – Holland and Knight LLP announced today the addition
of three intellectual property attorneys to its Washington D.C. office. The
three attorneys join Holland & Knight's 75-member national Intellectual Property
practice group and were previously at Swidler Berlin, LLP.
The team includes partners James H. Laughlin Jr. and John P. Moran together
with associate, Thomas Silvio Valente. They bring significant experience in
handling multi-million dollar patent and other intellectual property
litigation. Their clients are both international and domestic including Fortune
500 companies.
“These lawyers bring tremendous talent and additional depth to our
established intellectual property litigation capabilities,” said Stefan V.
Stein, practice group leader of Holland & Knight’s intellectual property group.
“Their impressive trial experience has earned them a reputation for being among
the top patent litigators in the U.S."
Laughlin has tried more than 20 patent cases to verdict, making him one of
the more experienced patent trial attorneys in the country. He has represented
3Com Corporation, Creative Resources, DeBeers, Dow Corning' Hughes, Monsanto,
Qualcomm, Texaco, and Veraxis International among others.
His long list of significant victories includes winning a unanimous jury
verdict in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida for MDS
America and MDS International of France. The verdict invalidated two patents
that had been blocking development of systems for providing local television to
satellite subscribers.
Laughlin has served as president of the National Inventors Hall of Fame
Foundation, was chairman of the Virginia State Bar Intellectual Property Law
Section and is a former officer and current trustee of the American Intellectual
Property Law Association. He has a JD from the American University – Washington
College of Law (1968) and a BS in chemical engineering from West Virginia
University (1964).
Moran worked with Laughlin at Swidler Berlin on numerous IP matters including
both technically complex opinions and trial issues. He has significant
experience before Federal district courts, the U.S. International Trade
Commission, and in appellate practice before both the Federal and Fourth
Circuits where he recently won an appeal confirming a favorable trademark
non-infringement ruling in Sterling Acceptance Corp. v. Tommark Inc. He has also
prosecuted hundreds of patent applications. Some of the technologies addressed
by those applications include semiconductors, telecommunications and robotic
systems..
Moran has represented Fujitsu Ltd., Network Associates, Oracle, Vonage and
IBM. He has a JD from Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law
(1983), an MS in computer engineering from Rutgers University (1980), and a BE
in electrical engineering from Villanova University (1974).
Valente was an associate at Swidler Berlin where he worked with Laughlin and
Moran on numerous intellectual property litigation matters at both trial and
appellate levels. He also has significant experience in government relations
issues. He has a JD from University of Virginia School of Law (2001) and a BA
in politics from The Catholic University of America (1998).
Contact: Ellen Farwell, (202) 419-2447