John Halan loves competition – and winning. As a result, he thrives in the world of high-stakes intellectual property litigation, including patent, trade secret, and related commercial litigation.

John's enthusiasm for his work is reflected in the practice strategies he adopts. John believes that a lack of preparation can be a lawyer's worst enemy. As a result, whether working on a simple discovery motion, or preparing for a trial or an appeal, John strives to learn every detail pertinent to the issues at hand. In presenting his client’s position to the court, John adheres to the Brooks Kushman philosophy of evaluating all possible arguments and presenting only the strongest. To that end John uses his writing skills and experience to pare his research into highly focused points. He finds that this preparation and methodology often gives him the winning edge.

At the same time, John abhors the costly and wasteful “scorched earth” tactics employed by many firms. Accordingly, throughout litigation he constantly evaluates the issues and focuses his efforts on only the elements needed to win.

John sees his clients as an integral part of his litigation team. While some lawyers like to work independently, John welcomes the active participation of his clients. This not only keeps clients abreast of new developments, but often provides John with invaluable insights.

In addition to litigation, John has negotiated and prepared many intellectual property agreements. When doing so, he always tries to foresee possible future disputes and avoid such disputes by carefully crafting the agreement language. He has also prepared many infringement and validity patent opinions.

As a licensed professional engineer, prior to attending law school and joining Brooks Kushman, John managed a number of industrial construction projects from initial design through to completion. John believes that experience gives him an inside understanding of how technology businesses operate, and more importantly, what their main concerns are.