Holland & Knight Adds Eight Intellectual Property Attorneys Including a Former General Counsel of a Leading Technology Company
June 22, 2006
Carla Christina Calcagno - Washington
Brian J. Colandreo- Boston
Jeffrey R. Seul- Boston
Jeff Seul, former Groove Networks GC and Harvard Law School
Lecturer, Joins Seven Recently Added Lateral IP Attorneys To Holland & Knight
BOSTON – Holland & Knight recently added a number of the nation’s
leading intellectual property attorneys to the firm’s IP Group. In addition to
bolstering the firm’s expertise in patent, trademark, copyright and
transactional matters generally, the new group greatly expands the group’s
software and networking capabilities.
The three most recent recruits include Jeff Seul, the former general
counsel of Groove Networks and Harvard Law School lecturer; Carla Calcagno,
a sought-after Washington, DC trademark attorney and a leading IP attorney who
serves as a Georgetown University Adjunct Law Professor; and Brian Colandreo,
who brings extensive software patent law experience.
“It is an exciting time for Holland & Knight’s IP group. Over the last year,
we have built a strong team that works well together. As a group and as
individual lawyers, we understand our clients’ specialized business needs and
possess an unmatched ability in solving their complex legal problems," said Josh Krumholz, the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group leader. “We will
continue to grow to meet the many needs of our firm’s clients, who represent
some of the best companies in the country and the world."
In addition to Seul, Calcagno and Colandreo, five attorneys have joined
Holland & Knight’s Intellectual Property group in the past year.
Ken Kozik, a
leading software and networking expert, and
Tom Johnston, a medical device
expert, joined the firm after leaving Fish & Richardson to join Holland &
Knight’s Boston office. Meanwhile, the Washington, D.C., office of Holland &
Knight added considerable patent litigation expertise through the additions of
Jim Laughlin,
John Moran and
Tom Valente, each of whom previously worked at
Swidler, Berlin. Laughlin brings more than 30 years of patent litigation
experience, including dozens of jury trials.
Jeff Seul
After serving as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where he taught
courses on negotiation and constructive, problem-solving approaches to law
practice, Seul arrived at Groove Networks in 2000 as Vice President, General
Counsel and Secretary. He was one of the first senior, non-engineers to join
the company, which had not yet completed development of its first project or
publicly announced what it was doing. Jeff was instrumental in raising venture
capital, developing and executing the company’s business strategy, and
negotiating the company’s sale to Microsoft in 2005.
At Holland & Knight, Seul’s practice will focus on corporate law,
intellectual property protection/licensing, and Internet commerce. Seul has
extensive experience forming companies, representing issuers/investors in equity
financings and debt offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. He has designed
domestic and international distribution frameworks and supporting contracts for
a wide variety of products and services, and he has structured and negotiated
many other types of significant intellectual property based transactions. Seul
did his undergraduate work in business administration and communication arts at
Regis College in Denver.
He holds a J.D. from the University of Colorado and an LL.M. from Harvard Law
School, where he was a Landon H. Gammon Fellow and a Climenko-Thayer Fellow.
Seul also holds a master’s degree in religious studies (ethics concentration)
from Harvard University.
Carla Calcagno
Carla Calcagno comes to Holland & Knight as a leader in the trademark legal
community. Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Calcagno also served in a
judicial capacity at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Calcagno has
extensive experience in IP and Internet litigation and in designing and
negotiating international licensing programs and corporate IP programs for
leading biotechnology, technology and software companies. Her practice involves
all aspects of intellectual property and related corporate business
transactions, with a particular emphasis on domestic and international trademark
and copyright searching, prosecution, enforcement, counseling, and litigation.
She specializes in trademark, domain name, trade dress, and related areas of
Internet, e-commerce, unfair competition, customs, and advertising law, as well
as IP administrative proceedings before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal
Board, domain name dispute resolution proceedings before ICANN, and federal
civil litigation.
Calcagno is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and is a
regular speaker for numerous international Intellectual Property organizations,
including INTA, ABA, AIPLA, and PLI, lecturing on IP issues. Calcagno is the
Co-chair for the ABA's Online Internet Subcommittee. Since 2002, Calcagno has
been recognized as a leading lawyer in the International Who's Who of Trademark
Lawyers, a peer selected publication. Calcagno earned her B.A. and J.D. degrees
from Georgetown University.
Brian J. Colandreo
Prior to joining the Intellectual Property Group of Holland & Knight, Brian
Colandreo practiced at Fish & Richardson (Boston) and McDermott Will & Emery
(Boston). A registered patent attorney, Colandreo focuses his practice on client
management, general IP prosecution, transactional work, litigation support, due
diligence work, and opinion work. His extensive technical experience ranges from
business methods/web-based applications to IR & EMF-based 3D positioning
systems, with clients ranging from small start-ups to publicly-traded
corporations.
Colandreo is licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and
the State of New York, and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office. Brian was co-chair of the Boston Chapter of the IEEE
Entrepreneurs Network, is currently an adjunct professor of IP law at Franklin
Pierce Law Center, and often judges IP moot court competitions.
Colandreo earned a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the New Jersey
Institute of Technology (1992) and JD and MIP degrees from Franklin Pierce Law
Center (1997).
Contact: Edison Lee, (202) 973-1349