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. Stephen 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.
Stephen also has extensive experience in drafting and prosecuting patent applications, conducting examiner interviews, filing appeals to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, accelerated examinations and reexamination proceedings. Thus, he provides technical and legal analyses to strategically partner and advise clients with all stages of their products life-cycle development.
Prior to joining Foley Hoag, Stephen 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 Stephen in these areas include 6,826,824; 6,658,721 (dynamo-electrics); 6,920,677; 6,883,222 (medical devices); 7,062,845; 6,988,306; 6,796,017 (electrical components, e.g., circuit board design, etc.).
Upon completing his graduate studies, Stephen 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, he gained extensive knowledge in vibration harmonics, electrical noise reduction and electromagnetic interference generated from various navigation equipment employed.
Additionally, Stephen's graduate studies focused on analysis of control systems having both linear and nonlinear characteristics, including system modeling and stability criteria determination.
