Justia Legal Services & Lawyers Directory

Milord A. Keshishian practices law with a focus on intellectual property rights. His training and experience includes the areas of patent, trademark, copyright, unfair competition, trade secret, and franchise law. He has extensive experience in litigating these matters, as well as counseling clients on transactions surrounding technology acquisitions and other business ventures.

Milord is experienced in pursuing intellectual property protection in the United States and internationally. He also serves as an expert witness in patent litigation matters handled by prominent law firms.

His interest in protecting intellectual property rights developed out of the respect he gained for the innovative thinking found in the fields of microbiology, immunology and cancer studies. During the pursuit of his Bachelor of Science Degrees in Biology and Political Science from UCLA, Milord witnessed the extensive time and effort that many professionals invested while developing unique approaches to scientific problems they were solving.

"The innovative methods and devices I observed during my four years of scientific research at UCLA," recalls Milord, "were often the culmination of the life work of the people involved; yet they sometimes risked having decades of their work simply taken over by others or lost if they didn't exert the proper precautions."

That struck him as distinctly unfair and a potential restraint on future creativity and financial reward. It was then that he began pursuing his law degree in order to practice intellectual property law and help protect the innovative work of creative minds. Milord received his Juris Doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1998. He also studied intellectual property law at the world renowned Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire.

Milord realized immediately that even the most brilliant people often need help obtaining the right protection for their ideas and structuring resultant business transactions.

"I remember a news piece about the inventor of in-line skates," recounts Milord, "describing how he had sold his rights to the patent and the Rollerblade company for a payment of $100,000. I knew right then that this inventor had just lost millions of dollars in licensing fees, yet all it would have taken was some guidance on approaching that transaction differently."

It was also important from the beginning that Milord & Associates provide their expertise bearing in mind the client's business goal. "Nothing is more rewarding," Milord says with satisfaction, "than resolving a big case for a client and then hear them comment on how attentive we were to their case and business objective."

Milord has representative clients ranging from large Fortune 100 companies to independent inventors.

He has lectured regularly in the area of intellectual property law at the California Manufacturing Technology Center, Small Business Development Center, and various universities. His appearances include KFWB radio, and he has authored numerous articles to educate the public on intellectual property matters.
Education

Mr. Cohen is the founder and principal of the Law Office of Michael N. Cohen, P.C. Mr. Cohen's practice is limited to matters involving intellectual property, business and entertainment law. He is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a patent attorney and is experienced in all phases of IP litigation relating to patent infringement validity and enforceability, trademark infringement, trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and interference with contractual relations. Mr. Cohen also specializes in matters involving UDRP proceedings, cybersquatting, and other domain name issues, and has successfully obtained preliminary injunctions against cybersquatters.

Mr. Cohen is also active in rendering patent and trademark validity and infringement opinions in a wide range of technical disciplines. He has argued and prepared motions and briefs in proceedings before the United States District Courts, the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board (TTAB), as well as appellate practice before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). He regularly counsels clients in entertainment transactions and IP transactional matters including licensing options and strategies, joint development, service provider and confidentiality agreements in addition to Internet-based terms of use and privacy policy statements.

Mr. Cohen is frequently retained by entertainment and business law firms to handle specialized matters involving their client's patent and trademark portfolios and to resolve infringement disputes.

James is a member of Canon USA's intellectual property division specializing in patent portfolio development, prosecution, and licensing of intellectual property rights. James provides strategic vision addressing Canon's current and future intellectual property and works in partnership with upper management to develop and implement overall strategic directives pertaining to Canon's patent portfolio.

Prior to working for Canon USA, James spent seven years in private practice where his work focused on procurement, enforcement and licensing of intellectual property rights, including patent prosecution, patent portfolio development, licensing initiatives and negotiations, the preparation of validity and freedom-to-operate opinions, intellectual property due diligence, and client counseling on a multitude of other IP matters.

James has drafted and prosecuted hundreds of patent applications in the electrical, mechanical, consumer product and computer arts, including imaging devices, networking, telecommunications, medical devices, and semiconductors.

James began his legal career as a patent agent at Darby & Darby P.C. in 2002 while simultaneously attending Fordham Law School. Prior to joining Darby & Darby, Mr. Tuozzo gained his technical expertise in signal processing as a member of the Advanced Digital Signal Processing Group at the Lockheed Martin Corporation. His efforts included work in high-performance multiprocessing hardware design, including real time control module design and embedded systems.

James is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He is a member of the U.S. Patent Bar, admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in all matters related to patents.

James' technical areas of experience include imaging, analog/digital systems and signal processing, embedded real-time applications, semiconductors, consumer products, and telecommunications systems. He possesses a particular in-depth knowledge of wireless communications and networking technologies.

Prior to opening his own practice, Raz Messerian was an associate attorney at one of the nation's largest intellectual property law firms. As a registered Patent Attorney he has prosecuted numerous patents across a wide range of technologies before the United States Patent & Trademark Office. Mr. Messerian has worked with clients of various sizes: from Fortune 500 companies to solo inventors.

Raz Messerian received his M.S. and B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from UCLA. Mr. Messerian's strong technical background and proclivity for the sciences serves as an invaluable tool in aiding him understand the nature and inner-workings of his clients' inventions. This understanding promotes efficiency during the patent prosecution process, and also leads to a stronger attorney-client relationship. Clients trust that he understands the full scope of the their invention and the related prior art.

Mr. Messerian obtained his Juris Doctorate degree from Loyola Law School Los Angeles, graduating in the top 15% of his class. Raz was born and raised in Southern California where he now resides and practices law. He enjoys reading, swimming, and spending time with his family and friends.