Professional Experience
John Leighton earned his bachelor's degree, master's degree, and PhD with Electrical Engineering as a major for all degrees and with Physics as a minor for his graduate degrees. John then practiced engineering as his first career designing semiconductor processes, devices and circuitry for the disk-drive industry as well as designing focal plane arrays and developing image processing algorithms for the infra-red camera industry. John is a named inventor on multiple patents.
John graduated from Hamline School of Law in 2010 and shortly thereafter embarked upon his second career practicing patent law. John first began practicing law at Thompson Patent Law and now has joined the team at Kinney & Lange.
As an attorney with extensive experience in industry as an electrical-engineer, John brings a unique set of skills to the Kinney and Lange team. These skills can be used to provide solutions to complex technical/legal interdisciplinary problems. John employs his technical and legal skill sets to analyze proposed inventions vis-à-vis the prior art landscape, to maximize claim scope, to prosecute patents efficiently, and to assess infringement risks.
In his spare time, John loves being husband to his beautiful bride and being father to his adorable children.
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Representative Matters
- Prepared and prosecuted many patent applications on a variety of technologies, including semiconductor technologies, electrical and magnetic circuits and systems, sensor technologies, imaging technologies, and software systems. Successfully prosecuted many patents that originated in other firms, often with a single response to the pending Office Action.
- Supervised prosecution of patent families being prosecuted in various venues, including foreign and domestic PCT applications and national counterparts.
- Provided patent infringement and patent invalidity analyses for litigation matters. Drafted questions for Expert witnesses, responses to interrogatories, and briefs for the court.