Tom Rozylowicz is a principal in Fish & Richardson's Washington, D.C., office who advises technology companies, investors, and innovators on intellectual property strategy, portfolio development, post-grant proceedings, licensing, and technology-driven transactions. His practice spans software, electronics, communications, semiconductors, and medical devices.
Tom works with clients ranging from Fortune 100 enterprises to emerging and growth-stage companies, helping them build and manage comprehensive intellectual property portfolios, including global standards-related and standard essential patent programs, that protect products and markets, strengthen competitive positioning, support fundraising and strategic partnerships, and enhance enterprise value. He regularly advises founders, venture-backed companies, investors, and management teams throughout the company lifecycle. He also counsels buyers, sellers, investors, and management teams in transactions where intellectual property ownership, valuation, due diligence, risk assessment, and freedom-to-operate considerations are material components of the deal. Tom provides patent procurement counsel to clients developing innovative business intelligence, telecommunications, network, biometric, software, semiconductor, medical device, and physical access control technologies. An IEEE survey ranked a patent portfolio that Tom built among the top portfolios in the software industry.
Tom has extensive experience in post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, representing both patent owners and petitioners in matters involving patents that are frequently asserted in litigation. He has led more than 100 America Invents Act post-grant matters involving commercially significant technologies in the software, communications, semiconductor, and electronics industries. Tom currently serves as vice president of the PTAB Bar Association and as a member of its board of directors, helping lead the national organization dedicated to practice before the PTAB. He previously served as conference chairman for the association, supporting a national conference designed to foster best practices before the PTAB. Tom also provides strategic IP counseling on risk assessment, patent opinions, patent mapping, patent categorization, industry benchmarking, product roadmaps, competitive positioning, and the alignment of IP investment with business objectives.
Tom also enjoys working with early-stage companies. He counsels emerging companies in creating intellectual property portfolios designed to support growth, investment, strategic partnerships, and acquisitions, and has developed programs that reconcile asset management systems with docket management systems and extranets to improve management of developing IP. Beyond his legal practice, Tom is founder and director of the U.S. Air Force Academy Entrepreneurs Group, a network of startup executives, finance professionals, investors, founders, and operators that facilitates networking, mentorship, and business connections within the Air Force Academy graduate community.
Tom previously worked as a senior electrical engineer and law clerk for the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland, where he directed leading-edge research efforts to develop secure communications equipment for the Department of Defense and the national intelligence community. He also managed a data center as the chief of network operations for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisitions at the Pentagon, where he designed and managed a nationwide network upgrade supporting broadcast-quality video and H.323 videoconferencing, enabling the undersecretary to engage the broader Department of Defense acquisition community (1994-1999). Tom served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force (1998-2001). This technical foundation, together with two decades of practice before the USPTO, informs his work in advanced communications technologies, including cellular networking and standards-based systems.
Technical Areas of Expertise
Software: machine learning; decision support systems; database design; sales support systems; business intelligence; encryption; data center and multicore processing; network processors; electronic conferencing; streaming media; network protocols; key management systems; VHDL design
Medical Device: endoscopic imagery and lenses; therapeutic lasers; surgical attachments; pain management systems; electrical stimulation systems; power management systems
Electrical: transistor design; power management; multichip packaging; current control; high power silicon carbide; antenna design; electronics and mobile device packaging; motors and generators and related power electronics; battery charging and discharging control systems; analog circuits; semiconductor manufacturing
