About Patrick Bright, Esq.
Patrick Bright is a patent attorney, duly licensed by the US Patent & Trademark Office (the United States government agency that issues patents to inventors, and issues trademarks) to represent inventors in applying to the US Patent & Trademark Office (“PTO”) for issuance of patents on the inventors’ inventions (referred to as “patent prosecution”). Mr. Bright is also licensed to appear before the PTO in all other PTO proceedings, including representing inventors, and parties challenging the inventions of others, in PTO patent reexamination proceedings and PTO patent re-issuance proceedings.
Mr. Bright has been licensed to practice before the PTO for more than 40 years, holding license No. 24,318. In his long career prosecuting (applying for issuance of) patents in the PTO on behalf of inventor clients, Mr. Bright has obtained issuance of hundreds of patents for inventor clients. In addition, Mr. Bright has extensive experience representing parties in re-examination proceedings in the PTO, re-issuance proceedings in the PTO, and Appeals in the PTO.
From 1976 to date, Mr. Bright has focused on patent solicitation and patent/trade secret litigation involving complex technology issues. From 1988 to 2005, Bright was a name partner of his own firm, Bright & Lorig, PC, now dissolved. Before founding Bright & Lorig, P.C., Mr. Bright was a partner in another Los Angeles patent law firm. In over 30 years of patent litigation, Mr. Bright and his firms have represented companies ranging from large multinationals such as Litton Industries, now Northrop Grumman Corp., Teledyne, Sulzer Medical, Unova, Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. and Digital Instruments, now a part of Veeco, a major manufacturer of atomic force and other scanning electron microscopes. Mr. Bright was co-counsel for an individual who obtained one of the larger damage awards for an individual patentee in Coyle v. Sega, a case which resulted in a $44 million payment for willful patent infringement. Mr. Bright was second chair in the Litton v. Honeywell patent infringement case which provided a jury verdict of $1.2 billion for willful infringement. Mr. Bright represented Litton in the PTO in successfully obtaining reissuance of this patent for Litton, strengthening the patent, before Litton sued Honeywell for infringement. Mr. Bright has also had lead responsibility in several Markman litigations (claim interpretation tried to District Courts pursuant to the Federal Circuit Markman decision) in the years since Markman issued.
Mr. Bright was co-counsel in a patent infringement suit against AT&T and Rockwell, settling with AT&T, and recovering a multi-million judgment after jury trial against Rockwell. Mr. Bright was also lead trial counsel in a case entitled Core-Vent Corp. v. Implant Innovations Inc., reported at 53 F.2d 1252 ( Fed. Cir. 1995), which is a leading Federal Circuit case on finality of judgments. Mr. Bright successfully represented an individual inventor in a patent infringement suit against Apple Computer in CD CA District Court, settling the suit for several million dollars.
Mr. Bright has been principal trial and patent counsel for two corporations that were acquired in the 1990's by larger corporations for sums in excess of $400 million. Mr. Bright had principal responsibility for solicitation and enforcement of the patents of these entities.
Appellate Work: In addition to District Court litigation, Mr. Bright has been counsel in numerous patent appeals in the Federal Circuit, and on petitions for certiorari/opposition to petitions for certiorari made to the US Supreme Court.
Patrick F. Bright is admitted to practice law in California (1976 to present) and New York (1969 to present). Mr. Bright's undergraduate degree is a BS in chemistry from Georgetown University. Mr. Bright holds a Juris Doctor degree with honors from George Washington University Law School 1969, and a Masters of Law and Taxation from New York University, 1972. Mr. Bright is also trained as an accountant, and passed all parts of the CPA examination.
Mr. Bright is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Association, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. Mr. Bright is a past president of the LAIPLA (Los Angeles Intellectual Property Lawyers Association). Mr. Bright has lectured for Practicing Law Institute, and has co-authored articles for PLI Publications.