Rodney D. Johnson Founder - President     CV

The firm's founder, Rodney D. Johnson, is a registered patent attorney.  Rod has been frequently selected for inclusion in Massachusetts/New England Super Lawyers by Thomas Reuters, as being among the top 5% of lawyers in Massachusetts and New England.  He has recently served as an instructor for the United Nations - World International Property Organization (WIPO) and the African Regional International Property Organization (ARIPO) to help educate African scientists, engineers, and government officials about patent practice, including teaching in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and at ARIPO headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe.  He has more recently served as an instructor for international students through the WIPO Academy in Geneva, Switzerland.

Rod’s practice includes counseling in the areas of patents, trademarks, copyrights, tradesecrets, and licensing agreements.  In particular, Rod prepares and prosecutes patent applications in computer software, hardware and networks; business methods; electronics including active matrix display panels, electrical circuits and semiconductor device fabrication; optical systems; medical devices and procedures; telecommunications; green technologies; pharmaceutical technologies; and mechanical devices and designs.  For more details of his patent prosecution experience, click here (transfers to full site).  In addition, he prepares IP non-infringement, freedom-to-operate, and due diligence opinions related to intellectual property.

Rod is also experienced in resolving disputed matters.  He has resolved matters both amicably and through litigation in areas of patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and domain name disputes.  For more details about disputed matters, click here (transfers to full site).

Before founding the firm, Rod was a Principal and Shareholder with Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C., in Concord, Massachusetts.   In addition to his law degree and over 20 years of IP experience, Rod holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and has 7 years of industry experience as a software engineer.  That legal and technical experience combine to provide quality intellectual property representation.

Rod's technical experience includes work as a software engineer with Raytheon Company, where he helped develop various state-of-the-art radar systems, including a unique radar for acquiring technical intelligence data on earth re-entry characteristics of in-flight ballistic missiles.  He also worked as a systems software engineer with Litton-Itek Optical Systems, where he developed control software for an actively controlled experimental space-based mirror for a high-energy laser weapon.  As a software consultant to GTE Government Systems, he was a technical leader in the development of crypto-key management software for the U.S. government’s secure telephone system.  Rod has also worked for IBM and the U.S. Air Force's Rome Air Development Center (now Rome Laboratories).