Clients from around the globe rely on Jeff Goehring’s strategic thinking, skill, and excellent customer service to protect their intellectual property.
Nixon Vanderhye Shareholder Jeff Goehring secures and defends patent and trademark rights for clients around the world. He regularly prepares and prosecutes utility and design patent applications and argues cases before the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Jeff draws on his litigation and opinion experience to inform his prosecution practice. This allows him to anticipate problems, recognize when an appeal is appropriate, and leverage analogous case law and evidentiary issues.
With an undergraduate degree in molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania, his utility patent practice focuses on biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and healthcare.
Jeff also focuses on trademarks and design. He manages a portfolio of over 1,500 U.S. trademark registrations, with about half originating through the Madrid system, and has prosecuted over 400 U.S. design patents. His related enforcement activities include maintaining an active docket at the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), regularly sending cease and desist letters, and filing the occasional federal lawsuit against defendants ranging from the largest multi-national corporations to semi-anonymous counterfeiters.
Jeff practiced patent prosecution and litigation, trademark protection and enforcement, and licensing and dispute resolution, with a focus on life sciences, for 15 years at an international patent and trademark law firm in Alexandria, Virginia, before joining Nixon Vanderhye in 2020.
He received a Juris Doctor at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana. During law school, Jeff clerked for the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences and for the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Orleans.
Experience
- Prosecuting pharmaceutical, healthcare, and cosmetic patents for European clients
- Forcing withdrawal of infringement lawsuit after claim construction by seeking Rule 11 and Section 285 sanctions where plaintiff’s theory of patent infringement was objectively baseless
- Providing design-around and freedom-to-operate strategy to microbiology startup, minimizing risk of lawsuit from dominant and litigious competitor
- Anti-counterfeiting strategies for luxury goods companies
- Successfully concluding opposition and cancellation proceedings before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
- Following significant due diligence, successful assertion of client’s medical sensor patents against a variety of infringers in several courts
- Suing Microsoft for trademark infringement
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Patents
- Preparation & Prosecution
- Design Patents
- PTAB Practice
- Enforcement
- Opinions & Counseling
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Trademark and Brand Protection
- U.S. and Global Trademark Prosecution and Registration
- U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) Proceedings
- Enforcement
- Anti-Counterfeiting
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IP Litigation
- Patents
- California
- Washington, D.C.
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- J.D., Tulane University, 2004
- B.A. in Molecular Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 2001
