About

Brian Wm. Higgins, J.D., P.E.

Mr. Higgins is a partner and member of Blank Rome’s Intellectual Property Litigation practice group. He represents the interests of clients before federal district and appellate courts involving complex patent litigation matters, including matters involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices, software, telecommunications, and electronics. He provides strategic patent procurement, copyright, trademark, and trade secret counseling to clients in numerous industries, including the life sciences, financial, telecommunications, automotive, e-commerce, environmental protection, and consumer electronics industries, to name a few. Mr. Higgins also counsels clients in complex licensing arrangements with third parties, and represents clients in contract negotiations. Mr. Higgins has represented book authors, artists, songwriters, educators, engineers, surgeons, scientists, as well as small not-for-profit companies and multi-billion dollar international corporations. He is a registered patent attorney and a licensed Professional Engineer. Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Higgins worked as an engineer and consultant for the U.S. Army and two government contractors. 

 

Education

Mr. Higgins received his law degree (J.D.) from the University of Maryland School of Law, his Master of Science (M.S.) in Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Engineering from Arizona State University.

 

Admissions and Registrations

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Maryland Court of Appeals

District of Columbia

Professional Engineer (P.E.)

 

Representative Matters


• Represented a patent owner before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a patent lawsuit involving mobile data collection devices

• Assisted generic drug manufacturers obtain patents and defend against patent and trademark infringement allegations brought by competitors

• Defended three Taiwan mobile telecommunications carriers in a patent suit before the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

• Assisted a national weather content service provider develop an extensive patent portfolio in the mobile telecommunications location-based services (LBS) market

• Helped a book author identify and clear copyright obstacles involving publication of photos of famous individuals in author’s memoir

• Counseled Internet e-commerce and content/service providers, helped protect their on-line businesses with patents and other forms of intellectual property

• Provided strategic patent, copyright, licensing, and government contract advise to a major university technology office regarding university’s event detection system

• Prepared patent applications for inventions involving emergency information reporting over public-switched and wireless telephony networks

• Helped individual inventor build new business from ground up, including procuring patent protection for novel pacing system, incorporating business structure, negotiating employment agreement terms, and developing strategies for enforcing patent rights against competitors

 

Professional Career

Blank Rome, LLP: Partner

Science Applications International Corporation: Engineer

Woodward-Clyde Consultants: Engineer

U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (CHPPM); Captain/Engineer

 

Community Service

In addition to blogging for this web site, Mr. Higgins provides pro bono services to the Maryland Lawyers for the Arts, and volunteers as an ad hoc peer reviewer for the Journal of Environmental Health, a National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) publication.