Overview
Kyle E. Conklin is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Mechanical & Design Practice Group. He counsels clients at all stages of the patent cycle, helping them enforce patent rights, navigate the existing patent landscape, and obtain patent protection.
Kyle’s enforcement work focuses on U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) Section 337 Investigations and federal district court litigation. With his engineering background, Kyle understands complex technology and can distill that technology into easy-to-understand concepts for trial.
He also represents both patent owners and third parties in post-grant proceedings at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, including inter partes reviews (IPR) with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and reexaminations with the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU). Many of these post-grant proceedings are involved in concurrent district court and ITC litigation.
At the procurement stage, Kyle drafts and prosecutes patent applications. He develops specific patent strategies that take into account his clients’ commercial products, competitors, and markets.
Kyle has litigated and prosecuted patents in a variety of mechanical and electro-mechanical technologies, including construction equipment, industrial food processing equipment, medical devices, lithography systems, fiber-optic distribution systems, consumer products, oil and gas equipment, health-monitoring systems, physiological sensors, surgical devices, dental products, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), hard disk drives, and industrial equipment.
Kyle is a contributing author of Patent Office Litigation, Second Edition. Published in 2017, the book provides a fresh and comprehensive exploration of patent office litigation proceedings, including how the proceedings interact with other aspects of patent procurement and enforcement, while delivering practical analysis and advice. This second edition is the follow up to the first version of the book published in 2012 by Thomson Reuters Westlaw that focused on the contested proceedings that were introduced under the America Invents Act that year.
Kyle received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Baylor University and his J.D., summa cum laude, from the Texas Tech University School of Law.
Representative Matters
ITC Investigations
- In re Certain High-Performance Gravity-Fed Water Filters and Products Containing the Same, 337-TA-1294 (counsel for Complainant, Brita LP in an ITC investigation involving water filters)
- In re Certain Non-Invasive Aesthetic Body-Contouring Devices, Components Thereof, And Methods Of Using Same, 337-TA-1219 (counsel for Complainant, BTL Industries, Inc. in an ITC investigation involving magnetic body contouring machines)
- In re Certain Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and Components Thereof, 337-TA-1141 (counsel for Complainant Juul Labs, Inc. in an ITC Investigation involving electronic nicotine delivery systems)
- In re Certain Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and Components Thereof, 337-TA-1139 (counsel for Complainant Juul Labs, Inc. in an ITC Investigation involving electronic nicotine delivery systems)
- In re Certain Road Construction Machines and Components Thereof, ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1088 (counsel for Respondents Wirtgen GmbH, Wirtgen America, and Joseph Vögele AG in an ITC investigation involving road construction equipment)
- In re Certain Road Milling Machines and Components Thereof, ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1067 (counsel for Complainant Wirtgen American in an ITC investigation involving road construction equipment)
District Court Litigation
- Wirtgen America, Inc. v. Caterpillar, Inc. (D. Del.) (counsel for plaintiff in litigation involving road construction equipment)
- Provisur Technologies v. Weber, Inc. (W.D. Mo.) (counsel for defendants in litigation involving industrial food processing equipment)
Education
- J.D., Texas Tech University School of Law, summa cum laude
- B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Baylor University