Chris Lightner is a senior associate in the Intellectual Property – Mechanical Patents Group, where he focuses his practice on the procurement of patents for wide-ranging technologies, including mechanical and electro-mechanical devices, medical devices, composite materials, manufacturing processes, and business methods. He regularly prepares and prosecutes patent applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and is experienced in counseling clients on patent portfolio strategies, licensing negotiations, and patent validity, infringement, and enforceability. Chris is also a member of the firm’s Hiring and Sustainability Committees.
Chris is active with the Atlanta Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Section, currently serving as its Vice Chair and as Chair of the Section’s keystone SpringPosium event. Chris also serves on the Patent Committee of the Intellectual Property Owners Association, the Patent Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, and the newly formed SIPO Liaison Council. In the community, Chris serves on the Board of Directors of Omosaze, a non-profit organization providing struggling elementary-aged students with quality after-school reading instruction.
Prior to law school, Chris worked for Boeing as a mechanical engineer on the National Missile Defense program. At Boeing, Chris gained experience with early detection, tracking, target discrimination, and precision intercept through force of hit-to-kill technologies.
- Patent counsel for a national container products manufacturer and distributor.
- Patent counsel for a national roofing products manufacturer and distributor.
- Patent counsel for a national medical and therapeutic device manufacturer and distributor.
- Patent counsel to a worldwide package delivery and logistics services company in relation to package tracking, vehicle management and logistical efficiency technology.
- Patent counsel to a leading advanced composites company that develops, manufactures and markets lightweight, high-performance composites, including carbon fibers, reinforcements, prepregs, honeycomb, matrix systems, adhesives and composite structures for use in commercial aerospace, space and defense, wind energy and industrial applications.
- Counsel for patent clients in diverse areas of technology, including materials handling, computer software, industrial power transmission, solar energy collection and utilization technologies, paper and pulp technologies, financial securitization products, fraud prevention systems, and warranty models.
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Contributing author to "Federal Circuit," Chapter in Patent Obviousness in the Wake of KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., American Bar Association, July 27, 2010.
July 27, 2010
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"Patent Case Summaries," IP Links, Vol. 20, No. 4, May 2009.
May 2009
- Georgia Bar Association
- Atlanta Bar Association
- American Intellectual Property Law Association
- Intellectual Property Owners Association
- Technology Association of Georgia