HOWARD N. SOMMERS received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio in 1964, and his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1967. He has intensive experience in all areas of intellectual property law, including prosecution and defense of patent, trademark, copyright, unfair competition and trade secret claims in federal and state courts, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in judge and jury trials. He also has intensive experience in prosecuting U.S. and foreign patent and trademark applications, interference, reexamination, and reissue proceedings before the Patent Office, and licensing matters. He has also served as an expert witness in patent cases. He is primarily active in technical areas dealing with computers, electronics, multimedia, software, hardware, optics, and medical technology.

Mr. Sommers has been Of Counsel to the firm since September 1996. Before joining the firm he was an Examiner's Assistant in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1963. He was a partner in the intellectual property firm of Sommers & Sommers in New Jersey from 1967 to 1979. From 1980-1983 he was with intellectual property law attorney I. Morley Drucker in Beverly Hills, California, and he was a partner in the intellectual property law firm of Drucker & Sommers in Beverly Hills, California from 1983 to 1996.

Mr. Sommers is admitted to practice in California, New Jersey, Florida, the Federal District and Appeals Court, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is a member of the State Bar of California, Beverly Hills Bar Association and Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association.