Hunter’s practice specializes in counseling clients on protecting and enforcing intellectual property while focusing on his client’s business goals.  Hunter regularly counsels clients on all aspects of patent law, including obtaining US and international patent rights.  He also assists clients in successfully asserting and defending intellectual property claims in various litigation matters, and also provides advice to clients on licensing intellectual property.  Hunter also regularly participates in corporate due diligence projects requiring careful study of intellectual property assets for deal integrity.

Hunter has experience in managing and working on intellectual property matters involving many different technologies.  The electronic technologies he has experience with include automotive-related technologies, wireless communication systems and wireless protocols, radio frequency-based wireless networks, electronic sensing systems, semiconductors and associated fabrication processes, nano-technology interconnects, ultrasonic transducers for imaging applications, digital media devices and associated digital media protocols, fiber optics, microelectronics, data converter testing systems, memory systems, and electronic billing systems.  Mechanical and material technologies he has experience with include thermal warpage of printed circuit boards, golf clubs, baseball bats, wood cutting/working knives, flotation devices, and packaging devices and systems.  Other technologies that Hunter has experience in include papillary muscle control systems for heart valves, hydrogels, and firearms and associated sighting devices.

Hunter also actively participates in various pro bono projects.  These projects include providing legal assistance to US Military veterans attempting to navigate the US Department of Veteran Affairs’s arcane and arduous claims process, including appeals to the Board of Veterans Appeals; the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims; and the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Representative Experience
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REPRESENTATION
Prepare and prosecute patents for Fortune 100 semiconductor device manufacturer, one of the nation’s foremost technical research institutes, world leading consumer products company, world leading sporting equipment company, Fortune 500 global automobile manufacturer, nation leading child flotation swimsuit manufacturer, nation leading innovative defense contractor, and other technology companies before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and other international patent offices; prosecution experience includes counseling clients on pursuing appeals before the USPTO’s Board of Patent Appeals & Interferences

Represent and litigation team member for clients involved in patent infringement litigation; litigation experience includes drafting and filing pleadings, serving and answering discovery, participation in multi-defendant patent litigation discovery processes, preparing invalidity/non-infringement contentions, deposing witnesses, and participation in patent appeal briefing

Advise clients on post-issue patent reexamination and opposition procedures, including successful defense of patent claims challenged by third party reexamination request and successful challenge of client’s competitor patent leading to full cancellation of competitor’s patent

Prepare and advise clients on various intellectual property-related opinions, including invention patentability, product/services freedom to operate, and non-infringement of intellectual property rights

Prepare and counsel clients on intellectual property license agreements, including patent, trademark, and copyright license agreements

Regularly participate in corporate due diligence studies focusing on intellectual property assets and advising clients to adjust deal structure based on due diligence analysis

Sample Drafted/Prosecuted Patents Include:

7,375,288: Apparatuses and methods for improving ball-grid-array solder joint reliability

7,271,357: Interface Test System

7,263,073: Systems and methods for enabling a mobile user to notify an automated monitoring system of an emergency situation

7,254,494: Ultrasonic signal processing method and applications thereof

7,250,882: High speed data converter testing devices, methods, & systems

7,226,330: Flotation swimsuit and method for construction thereof

7,162,343: Intelligent vehicle rollover detection methods and systems

7,127,584: System and method for dynamic rank specific timing adjustments for double data rate (DDR) components

7,103,511: Wireless communication networks for providing remote monitoring of devices

6,978,880: Conveyor belt cleaning devices, methods, and systems

Sample Litigation Matters Include:
Emergis Technologies v. PNM Resources; US District Court for the District of New Mexico, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; part of litigation team successfully obtaining summary judgment of non-infringement of patent related to electronic invoicing and successfully obtaining appellate affirmance of trial court summary judgment decision (Appellate Opinion reported at: Emergis Technologies. v. PNM Resources, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 2354) (USPN 6,044,362).

JuxtaComm Technologies, Inc. v. Information Builders, Inc. et al.; US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (currently pending); part of litigation team defending patent infringement claim relating to software for transforming and exchanging data between distributed, heterogeneous computer systems (USPN 6,195,662).

DSC v. Information Builders, Inc. et al.; US District Court for the Northern District of California (currently pending); part of litigation team defending patent infringement claim relating to software for applying analysis rules to data sets in a relational database to generate a database of diagnostic records linked to the data sets (USPN 5,537,590).

Iggesund Tools v. Key Knife, Inc., US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (currently pending); part of litigation team defending patent infringement claims relating to cutting and wood working knives (USPNs 6,722,595; 6,951,313; & 7,159,626).

Verid v. Monster.com, Inc., US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, trademark infringement claim, filed infringement suit led to Monster stopping use of trademark holder’s registered trademark.

PRO-BONO REPRESENTATION
Represent U.S. Military veteran before United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in obtaining military benefits for military service as part of The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program (www.vetsprobono.org)

Member of the Federal Circuit Bar Association’s Veteran’s Appeal Committee and member of pro bono case team selecting cases for assignment of FCBA’s pro bono lawyers to represent veteran’s before United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Represent indigent clients and law enforcement clients in estate planning matters as part of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyer's Foundation Wills Program and Saturday Morning Lawyer's Program (www.avlf.org)

Publications
The Data Police: The Federal Trade Commission Strikes Back, Georgia Journal of Technology (Technology Section State Bar of Georgia Newsletter), Spring 2006

The Patent Infringement Trap For Educational Research Facilities: Madey v. Duke University, GA Bar Intellectual Property IP Section Newsletter Spring/Summer 2004

Knocking Out Foreign, Imported Knockoffs, Troutman Sanders Newsletter, Intellectual Property & The Law, Winter 2005

Beating Back Willful Infringement Claims, Troutman Sanders Newsletter, Intellectual Property & The Law, Fall 2004

Community Service
Career Day Speaker, Hunt Elementary School, Fort Valley, GA (2006, 2008)

Member, National Eagle Scout Association

Distinctions
Selected as a Georgia Rising Star in Intellectual Property Law by Law & Politics and Atlanta Magazine (2007)

Firm Service
Elected by fellow Atlanta associates to firm’s Technology Committee to represent firm’s Atlanta associates (2008-present)