Derek P. Benke
Senior Associate
Tel (703) 413-3000

Derek P. Benke

Senior Associate

DEREK P. BENKE, a technology patent attorney practicing in the firm’s Electrical Patent Prosecution group, has experience prosecuting and drafting patent applications for highly rated, large, multinational corporations in a multitude of technologies. These include consumer electronics, semiconductor devices, signal compression and encoding schemes, computer hardware and software, controllers, communications systems, audio and video processing, display technologies, medical devices, aerospace and automotive components, and business methods.

Before attending law school, Mr. Benke gained technical experience in the circuit protection industry by working as a Product Application Engineer Intern at a leading company in the field of circuit protection devices, including automotive circuit protection, electrical fuses, thyristors, and more.  Mr. Benke has worked in the areas of over-voltage, over-current and integrated technologies in the automotive, electronics, electrical, and silicon segments.

During law school, Mr. Benke clerked for a Chicago intellectual property law firm as well as for the City of Chicago, assisting on major litigation.

Board Affirms Examiner’s Obviousness Rejection Because the Combination of Interfaces from the References is Merely a Combination of Familiar Elements According to Known Methods That Yield a Predictable Result
Thursday, April 26, 2012

In Ex parte Allen et al. (Appeal 2009-014902, in Application Serial No.

Board Rejects Appellants’ Assertion that the Examiner’s Proposed Combination Renders the Prior Art Unsatisfactory for its Intended Purpose
Wednesday, February 15, 2012

In Ex parte Schmitt, (Case No. 2010-011741, in Application Serial No. 11/387,678, decision issued February 14, 2012), the issue on appeal was whether the Examiner erred in asserting that a combination of Babula, Redgate, and Lavery renders obvious independent claim 20.  The issue turned on whether modifying Babula, as suggested by...

Ex parte Nahas
Friday, August 26, 2011

In Ex parte Nahas (Appeal 2010-005054, in Application Serial No. 11/249,814, decision issued August 24, 2011) the issue on appeal was whether the Examiner erred in determining that a person of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized the petroleum coke of Schlinger to be a suitable carbonaceous material for use in the...

In re Lovin
Wednesday, July 27, 2011

In In re Lovin, (Case No. 2010-1499, in Application Serial No. 10/924,633, decision issued July 22, 2011), the issue before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was whether the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (the “Board”) correctly interpreted Rule 41.37 in refusing to separately address the obviousness...

All Blogs