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175 F.3d 1356 (Fed. Cir. 1999) (en banc)

Thirty years between a planter row and an en banc panel.

Patent counsel for the people who build the machines.

About Thomas J. Oppold's practice

A Midwest cornfield rising into a clear summer sky.
USDA - public domain

Lincoln County, SD - 1971 to present

The farm

Tom grew up on a working farm in Springdale Township, Lincoln County, South Dakota. The first thing farm machinery teaches is that agriculture becomes engineering at the moment weather meets a row unit, a broken part, and a deadline.

A welder working over structural steel under industrial light.
U.S. Navy - public domain

Pitt-Des Moines - 1989 to 1993

The engineering

Before law school, Tom studied agricultural engineering at SDSU and worked in structural steel fabrication. Tolerance, in the physical world, is the gap between specification and construction. Patent disputes often live in that same gap.

Portrait of Thomas J. Oppold.
Portrait - Thomas J. Oppold

Iowa and Minnesota Bars - 1997 to present

The law

Tom reads claims the way an engineer reads drawings: looking for what is load-bearing and what is decoration. A planter row, a steel detail, a claim limitation: each is a small unit of intent doing more work than it appears to.

Each became part of how he reads a claim.

Practice

Five areas, one docket.

prosecution

Patent Prosecution

Drafting and shepherding US utility and design applications through the USPTO, with deep experience in agricultural equipment, electromechanical systems, row-unit electronics, and equipment-control architecture.

litigation

Patent Litigation and Appeals

District court infringement and validity work, Federal Circuit briefing, and appellate posture built into the record from the start.

ipr

IPR and Reexamination

PTAB inter partes review and ex parte reexamination for petitioners and patent owners, especially in mechanical and agricultural technology centers.

trademark

Trademark and Trade Dress

Clearance, prosecution, opposition, and trade-dress strategy for marks and product identity that need to survive field use as well as registration.

licensing

Licensing and Tech Transfer

License drafting and negotiation around field-of-use, sublicensing, royalty stacking, patented hardware, and technology transfer between OEMs and integrators.

Counsel of record for selected matters

  • Precision Planting
  • Headsight
  • Genesis Attachments
  • Superior Industries
  • Skyline Displays
  • Par Aide
  • Cray
  • Kingdom Ag Concepts
  • EastPoint Sports
  • Bioenergy Life Science

Selected matters - 1997 to present. Client marks are review-gated before launch.

Selected press

In the trade and legal press.

Contact

Open an engagement.

New matters by direct introduction. A line about the technology, the posture, and any conflicts you can name is the right opening.

tom@opip.lawIowa and Minnesota Bars