Tom is a registered patent attorney who specializes in the preparation, prosecution, and litigation of patents and trademarks, post-grant patent proceedings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, intellectual property portfolio development and management including acquisitions and divestitures, copyright, licensing, and trade secret matters. He is also skilled in trademark opposition practice, both in the U.S. and internationally and opposition practice in Europe. His primary focus is in the fields of electrical, mechanical, signal processing, control systems, information management and processing systems, computer hardware, and software technologies. Tom has over 25 years of experience working with individuals as well as businesses of all sizes from start-up companies to multi-billion dollar companies. His practice includes both U.S. and international portfolios. He regularly advises clients on the analysis of the patent, trademark, and copyright rights of others when developing new products and bringing those products to market. Mr. Runk has also been actively engaged in intellectual property litigation including all aspects of pre-trial work as well as trial to a jury. Prior to joining Brooks Kushman, Tom was a shareholder at another Los Angeles intellectual property law firm. He was also an Associate Patent Counsel for the Ground Systems Group of Hughes Aircraft Company and was responsible for the protection of its radar technologies, spread spectrum communications technologies, display consoles, sonar and radar processor technologies, software products, and its computer products. Thomas received his B.S. in electrical engineering from Lowell Technological Institute and his J.D. from Western State University. He is admitted to practice in California; the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; the U.S. District Courts in the Central, Northern, and Southern Districts of California; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; the U.S. Supreme Court, and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is a member of the State Bar of California, the Long Beach Bar Association, the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association, and the Judge Paul R. Michel Intellectual Property American Inn of Court. He authors chapter 2 on ownership of trade secrets in the Trade Secrets treatise of the California Continuing Education of the Bar ("CEB").   Court Admissions: U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit U.S. District Court for the Central District of California U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California U.S. Supreme Court