Chris Johns maintains a diverse patent practice, ranging from Section 337 litigation at the International Trade Commission (ITC) and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) trials to prosecution, portfolio development, and strategy. He has more than a decade of experience in the patent field, and his wide-ranging practice touches on nearly all aspects of patent prosecution and litigation.
On the prosecution and client counseling side, Chris has experience with drafting, prosecuting, and appealing patent applications related to electronics, software, telecommunications, shipping and logistics, and business methods. He spends a considerable amount of time with domestic and international clients working on strategic counseling, including portfolio management and drafting strategies. Chris has a particular focus on patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101, and speaks and writes about this dynamic topic regularly.
Chris handles inter partes review (IPR) and covered business method (CBM) proceedings before the PTAB of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), district court litigations, and ITC investigations. He has litigation experience relating to telecommunications, storage systems, display screens and televisions, medical devices, computer software, household goods, and other mechanical devices.
Before joining Finnegan, Chris served as a USPTO patent examiner for nearly five years. He examined patent applications related to cryptography, network communication devices, healthcare systems, financial transaction processing, postage metering systems, and electronic content licensing.
During his graduate studies, Chris took coursework in IT security and completed a capstone project related to microcontrollers. In addition, he worked as a network technician at Johns Hopkins University, gaining hands-on experience in various network technologies.
Chris’s pro bono activities include representing asylum seekers before immigration courts through Human Rights First, and assisting veterans with appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
