Brian R. Epstein
Senior Associate
Tel (703) 413-3000

Brian R. Epstein

Senior Associate

BRIAN R. EPSTEIN is a registered patent prosecution attorney in the firm’s Electrical Patent Prosecution and Pharmaceutical/Medical Devices practice groups.  Mr. Epstein is particularly skilled at enhancing U.S. patent portfolios of Asian and European companies, including several of the world’s top companies. He has prosecuted patents involving a range of technologies, including information technology, analog and digital circuit design, semiconductor fabrication, communications, imaging, and medical devices.

Mr. Epstein leverages Oblon, Spivak’s proximity to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to conduct interviews with Patent Examiners. His ability to understand and succinctly articulate the novel aspects of complex inventions has resulted in many successful interviews and patents in order to swiftly bring prosecution to a satisfying conclusion.

Prior to joining Oblon, Spivak, Mr. Epstein worked for Texas Instruments in communications integrated circuit design. He also worked for Motorola, Inc. in the Consumer Products Division, in software development, hardware testing, and manufacturing support roles. 

During graduate school, Mr. Epstein worked for GatorNest, assisting in the marketing of innovative technologies. His research on a vagal nerve stimulator took advantage of the facilities at Shands at the University of Florida and the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center. He also taught analog and digital circuit design. Additionally, during his undergraduate career, Mr. Epstein researched micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and constructed a CD-ROM attachment for a cartridge-based video game system.

Representative Matters

Prosecuted numerous standards cases, including those related to IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.15.4, and the Universal Disk Format. Because a patent covering an industry standard can lead to valuable licensing agreements, standards cases require a detailed technical analysis to obtain a valuable scope of patent protection.

Participated in group-prosecution initiatives, in which the same attorney is responsible for a number of related cases. His familiarity in the related cases enabled him to protect the clients’ core interests, while obtaining a different scope of coverage unique to the individual cases.

Experienced with software patent applications, Mr. Epstein is sensitized to the unique issues presented by those applications, which raise complex technical and legal issues simply not present in other technical fields.

Regularly works with in-house counsel to draft claims to read on competitors’ products. He provides effective communication to apprise in-house counsel of how their interests are being protected.

Seeks to obtain the most valuable claims for clients and, accordingly, has experience in appeal and pre-appeal procedures.