Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. Richard Feynman, professor of physics at California Institute of Technology, wrote a book for the general public called “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.” In the legal field of intellectual property, the pleasure is in meeting, working with and getting to know some of the smartest, most creative and business-savvy people of our generation. Mr. Pennington recalls a few here:
Dr. Ted Hoff, Inventor of the Microprocessor:
“Several years ago, I was lead trial counsel for a major semiconductor manufacturer, enforcing patents related to encryption algorithms embedded in application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and programmed into microprocessors for encrypting radio frequency transmissions. Our case was pending in both federal court and at the ITC and was very intense. The expert on our side was Ted Hoff, credited with inventing the very first microprocessor while at Intel. A phd electrical engineer from Stanford, he could not have been more knowledgeable or more pleasant to work with. With Ted on our side, we ended up with a very favorable settlement just before trial.”
Dr. Don Specht
“Without a doubt one of the most brilliant engineers I worked with was Dr. Don Specht when he was at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Research Center in Palo Alto. Long before “artificial intelligence” became the modern buzz term it is today, Don was inventing neural networks to analyze images taken from satellites. Another PhD from Stanford in electrical engineering, Don’s inventions were way ahead of their time, and helped the US establish a preeminent position in the world of artificial intelligence.”
Dr. Win Paris
“Not all inventors have PhD’s from Stanford. Dr. Win Paris was an extremely energetic exercise guru, collaborator with Jack LeLanne, and one of the original bodybuilders who lifted weights on Muscle Beach, at Santa Monica. I love this picture of Dr. Paris, then in his late 70s and still doing handstands on his car, showing me how to use his patented exercise machine. A day didn’t go by where he didn’t have a new idea pop into his head.”
Gloria and Bo Diddley
“The most interesting people you meet in IP law are not always your clients. I had the good fortune of working with a wonderful person at one of my prior law firms named Gloria. We used to talk about music and share stories. She told me that in her younger years she was a singer with Bo Diddley’s band. I was so impressed and amazed and so grateful that she gave me an autographed picture of her in the band. She is the one closest to Bo in the picture. Gloria didn’t go around talking about Bo Diddley, nor did she share with everyone her love of and talent for music. Her story came to me as we were just casually talking about music. In a way, Gloria helped me understand that every juror that you meet for the first time in voir dire has the potential to have as interesting a life and as many talents as anyone.”
Gerhard Ruf and “Solnhofen Stone”
“Probably the most interesting trademark case I had was a fight over the name SOLNHOFEN. Solnhofen is a village in Bavaria famous for its stone quarries. Solnhofen stone has been found in Roman baths dating back 2000 years, and was more recently famous for the location where the “archeopteryx” fossil was found. Shown in this picture is me and one of the client’s directors in the quarry displaying a fossil after a piece of stone was split in two pieces. A competing company had registered SOLNHOFEN as a US trademark, and was using the trademark to prevent my client from calling its product what it was – solnhofen stone. Thankfully, we succeeded in invalidating the trademark so all quarriers can use the name.” Gerhard Rul, the leader of my client, was kind enough to show me around Munich, and Eichstatt, a town near Solnhofen, and of course it was Gerhard who had me fossil hunting in the quarries. At one time he had been an engineer at BMW but he decided that building stone, and working with architects, was his calling.”
Clarence “Mookie” Jackson
“One of the more interesting copyright cases I worked on was Jackson v. Warner Records, where I represented Clarence “Mookie” Jackson. Mr. Jackson wrote the music for James Brown’s hit song “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World. Bettie Newsome wrote the lyrics, and James Brown made the song famous. In a contract dispute over royalties, I found out the real story behind the song, and it could not have been more emblematic of what inspires real music – it’s not the money, it’s the story behind the words.”
Paul Chapman and Bavarian Nordic
“Well before the covid pandemic, I was lead trial counsel on a vaccine patent case representing Bavarian Nordic. We enforced their patents at the ITC to prevent competing, infringing smallpox vaccines from entering the US. For almost a year, I traveled the world and worked on almost a daily basis with the now CEO Paul Chapman, and their Global Head of IP, Li Westerlund. It was hard to tell at times if I was part of Bavarian Nordic or they were part of my law firm, because we worked closely as a single, coordinated entity. The result we received at trial helped Bavarian Nordic become one of the most successful vaccine companies in the world.”