Areas of Concentration

• Patent Opinions including analysis of product specifications and performing freedom to operate and product clearance searches; analysis of third party patents relevant to product clearance.
• Preparation and prosecution of U.S. and international patent applications.
• Patent Litigation.
  

Professional Activities

Stephen Kenny’s practice includes patent portfolio development and management, competitive intelligence and analysis, and due diligence investigations. He analyzes competitor patent portfolios to counsel clients on pipeline products and potential design modifications. Mr. Kenny prepares validity, infringement, patentability, and clearance opinions in the electro-mechanical and mechanical fields, with a concentration on medical devices. In addition, he studies competitor products to advise clients on enforcement of their patent portfolios against third parties.

Mr. Kenny also has extensive experience in drafting and prosecuting patent applications, conducting examiner interviews, filing appeals to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, accelerated examinations and reexamination proceedings. Thus, Mr. Kenny provides technical and legal analyses to strategically partner and advise clients with all stages of their products life-cycle development.

Prior to joining Hughes Hubbard & Reed, Mr. Kenny was a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. As an examiner, his docket focused on U.S. and international patent applications in various technologies including dynamo-electric devices, manufacturing processes, medical devices, printed circuit boards, mechanical systems, and business methods. Some exemplary patents issued by Mr. Kenny in these areas include 6,826,824; 6,658,721 (dynamo-electrics); 6,920,677; 6,883,222 (medical devices); 7,062,845; 6,908,306; 6,796,017 (semiconductor and printed circuit board design).

Upon completing his graduate studies, Mr. Kenny worked as a flight test engineer with Sikorsky Aircraft, where he developed flight test plans, aircraft maneuvers, and performed data analysis while conducting test flights on both production and experimental helicopters. As a flight test engineer, Mr. Kenny gained extensive knowledge in vibration harmonics, electrical noise reduction and electromagnetic interference generated from various navigation equipment employed.

Additionally, Mr. Kenny’s graduate studies focused on analysis of control systems having both linear and nonlinear characteristics, including system modeling and stability criteria determination.

Publications and Lectures

• Etan S. Chatlynne, Stephen Kenny & Lucas Watkins, Investigating Patent Law’s Presumption of Validity Part II: An Empirical Analysis of How Unconsidered Evidence And Evidentiary Standards Affect Jury Verdicts, 2011 Cardozo L. Rev. de novo 46