Mr. Pennington has spent his entire career litigating patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and contract actions in virtually every federal court throughout the United States. These include the more active patent venues such as the U.S. District Courts for the Districts of Delaware, New Jersey, Eastern and Western Texas, Southern, Central and Northern California. He also appears in fast docket courts such as the Eastern District of Virginia, and the United States International Trade Commission. His cases range from telecommunications to vaccines, sporting equipment, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, raw chemicals, nuclear reactors and related cooling structures. He has represented United States Department of Energy laboratories in both patent prosecution and patent litigation, and has represented clients under investigation by government agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Early in his career, Mr. Pennington was on the court appointed list in Virginia state and federal courts for defending indigent defendants in criminal matters.
Prior to founding Pennington Oliak, Mr. Pennington was head of IP Litigation at Smith Gambrell & Russell, and prior to that, he was Chair of the IP practice at Swidler Berlin, which subsequently merged into Bingham McCutchen. Prior to his time at Swidler Berlin, he was the Managing Partner of the Washington D.C. office of Morgan & Finnegan.
An active appellate practitioner, Mr. Pennington has appeared multiple times before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as several regional Circuit Courts including the Third and Fourth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He won a landmark decision at the Fourth Circuit establishing that the United States Postal Service can be sued under the Federal Trademark Act without enjoying sovereign immunity.
Focusing on client success, Mr. Pennington constantly explores ways to win cases at the lowest possible cost to the client. Often this has led to wins on Summary Judgment and on Motions for Judgment as a Matter of Law.
Mr. Pennington received BS and MA degrees from West Virginia University, and while in graduate school, he received a Teaching Fellowship and taught Statistics. He was also on the Fencing team, and was an athletic department tutor for mathematics. He received his law degree from George Mason University, where he was part of the team that competed in the Jessup International Moot Court Competition.
He is admitted to the bars of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the District of Columbia, the federal bar for the District of Maryland, and the United States Patent bar. He is admitted to the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia, the District of Maryland, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the Fourth Circuit, the Federal Circuit, and the District of Columbia Circuit. He is also admitted to the United States Supreme Court.
This is Mr. Pennington’s email address: epennington@pennoliak.com
Alternatively, you can contact his office at 202-897-2725, and his secretary will assist you.