About
I have been the engineer at the drafting table, the inventor on the patent, the litigator pulling patents apart in federal court, and the executive deciding whether the legal bills were worth it. Each seat changed how I practice from this one.
The path
B.S., Mechanical Engineering Technology
An Indiana engineering education, paid for by turning wrenches at Mann's Harley-Davidson. I came to the law the long way, through machines.
Product Design Engineer, Steering Systems
Designed steering systems in Saginaw, Michigan and headed GM's first engineering relationship with Nissan. Along the way I earned a patent of my own, so I know what it feels like to hand an invention to a lawyer and hope they understand it.
Named inventor: U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,929Team Leader, Product Engineering
Led product engineering between San Diego and Tijuana, adding seven million dollars in sales to a twenty million dollar division as a design and sales engineer.
J.D., cum laude, Order of the Coif · Associate
Graduated with the highest grade in my class in intellectual property, then joined Lyon & Lyon, one of the oldest IP firms in America, drafting and prosecuting dozens of patent applications in wireless, e-commerce, medical device, and electromechanical arts, and working patent litigations with hundreds of millions at stake.
Senior Associate, Indianapolis
Patent and trademark prosecution and litigation at Indiana's storied IP firm, where I was voted the firm's number one associate litigator and led a five attorney team defending a twenty million dollar patent suit to a favorable settlement.
Lead Attorney, and Of Counsel at Procopio through 2009
Founded the firm and built a nationwide practice in patent and trademark prosecution, portfolio strategy, opinions, and licensing, while serving of counsel to Procopio in San Diego, including as co-counsel in a trademark action that settled for thirty million dollars.
Co-founder and COO, dashcams.com
Co-founded, built, and successfully exited a wholesale automotive electronics company, hiring the executive team, directing product sourcing and engineering, and signing the deals myself, while continuing to counsel the firm's clients. That chapter taught me the client's half of the ledger: what legal work is worth paying for and what is theater.
Founder · Companion firm
Founded a second firm that does exactly one thing: flat fee, expedited full utility US patent applications for physical products, filed under the USPTO's Track One program on a roughly one year schedule. Everything that fits that mold goes there; everything bespoke stays at Roberts IP Law.
Roberts IP Law
A full transactional IP practice anchored on 3rd Street in Columbus: patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and the deals that put them to work, every matter handled personally.
The record
A sampling across two decades: firearms, e-bikes, medical devices, watercraft, agriculture, consumer products.
A small sample of patents prosecuted by John Roberts for clients. See more example patents. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
The record
A sampling across consumer products, supplements and personal care, firearms, software, and services.
A small sample of registrations obtained by John Roberts as attorney of record. See more example trademarks. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
How I work
