Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Lawyer Overview

James Randall Beckers was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1952.  Mr. Beckers, received an Electrical Engineering degree from Auburn University, and a Master of Science Degree in Computer and Information Science from the University of Alabama - Birmingham.  Mr. Beckers was awarded his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University.

Mr. Beckers' legal expertise is greatly enhanced by his professional experience as a computer scientist and communications engineer obtained while working for an engineering services and communications subsidiary of an electric utility holding company.  During his legal career, Mr. Beckers has worked extensively in the preparation and prosecution of patent applications, patentability, infringement and validity opinions, right-to-use and product clearance opinions, licenses, and intellectual property counseling relating to all phases of advanced electronics, bioelectronics, neural networks, computer hardware, software, computer languages, artificial intelligence, expert systems, business models, and methods, e-commerce and WWW based transaction systems.  His experience in IPO due diligence reviews includes Internet auto and medical products.  Mr. Beckers licensing experience relates to cryptographic systems, electromagnetic machines, voice mail systems, waste processing control and e-commerce.  He is also experienced in copyright and trade secret protection of computer software.  Mr. Beckers has conducted client engineer seminars on patent application preparation and prosecution and related legal issues.  Mr. Beckers has been a speaker on the topic of creative approaches to protecting computer software and trends in software protection, on intellectual property protection of high technology and on protecting multi-media systems and software.  He has also been a guest lecturer at law schools, colleges and Universities.  Mr. Beckers has published a number of papers including: "Throwing Out Baby Benson With The Bath Water:  Proposing a New Test for Determining Statutory Subject Matter", The Computer Lawyer, Vol. 10, No. 1, January 1993 and Jurimetrics Journal of Law, Science and Technology , Winter 1993, Vol. 33, No.1; "An Analysis of the Final U.S.P.T.O. Examination Guidelines for Computer-Related Inventions", International Legal Strategy, Vol. V-3, March 1996; "Recent Trends in the Patentability of Computer Related Inventions: Is a Method of Doing Business Patentable?", International Legal Strategy, Vol. V-11, November 1996; "Signature Financial Group as an Inventory Distributor: Would the Court View the Claim Differently?", Law Works, Intellectual Property Today , Vol. 4, No. 3, March 1997, "Best Mode and Software Related Inventions: Is Source Code Necessary?", Law Works, Intellectual Property Today, Vol. 4, No. 5, May 1997; "The Examination of Computer-Related Inventions by the U.S. Patent & Trademarke Office," International Legal Strategy,  Vol. IX-6, June 2000, "2001 An On-Sale Odyssey: Recent Changes To The On-Sale Bar To Patentability", Law Works, Intellectual Property Today, Vol. 9, No.1, January 2002. "Invocation of Pfaff and its Progeny to Obtain Invalidation by On-Sale Bar", International Legal Strategy, Vol. 12-3, March 2003. Mr. Beckers has litigation experience in both bench and jury patent infringement trials in technology related to voice mail systems, electronic measurement systems and product identification systems. Mr. Beckers has experience appealing U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decisions to both Federal District Courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  Mr. Beckers also has several years of experience in proceedings before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences.  Reported decisions include In re Van Geuns, 20 U.S.P.Q.2d 1291 (Fed. Cir. 1991).

Areas of Practice

• Intellectual Property Law
• Patent
• Trademark
• Copyright
• Unfair Competition

Representative Cases

• In re Van Guens, 946 F.2d 845, 20 U.S.P.Q. 2d 1291 (Fed. Cir. 1991)

West Practice Categories

Intellectual Property Law, Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Unfair Competition

Bar Admissions

• Alabama, 1980
• District of Columbia, 1982
• U.S. Court of Appeals Federal Circuit, 1982
• U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, 1984
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Professional Associations and Memberships

• The District of Columbia Bar, Section of Computer Law (Member)
• The District of Columbia Bar, Section of Patent, Trademark and Copyright Law (Member)
• Alabama State Bar (Member)
• American Bar Association (Member)
• American Intellectual Property Law Association (Member)

Education

• Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, 1980
  J.D.
• Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, 1975
  B.S.E.E.
• University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, 1977
  M.S.
  Major: Computer Science

Fraternities/Sororities

• Phi Alpha Delta

Published Works

• "Throwing Out Baby Benson With the Bath Water: Proposing a New Test for Determining Statutory Subject Matter," (Co-Author), The Computer Lawyer, Vol. 10, No. 1, January, 1993
• "Throwing Out Baby Benson With the Bath Water: Proposing a New Test for Determining Statutory Subject Matter," (Co-Author), Jurimetrics Journal of Law, Science and Technology, Vol. 33, No. 1, Winter, 1993
• "An Analysis of the Final U.S.P.T.O. Examination Guidelines for Computer-Related Inventions," (Co-Author), International Legal Strategy, Vol. V-3, March, 1996
• "Recent Trends in the Patentability of Computer Related Inventions: Is a Method of Doing Business Patentable?" (Co-Author), International Legal Strategy, Vol. V-11, November, 1996
• "Signature Financial Group as an Inventory Distributor: Would the Court View the Claim Differently?" (Co-Author), Law Works, Intellectual Property Today, Vol. 4, No. 3, March, 1997
• "Best Mode and Software Related Inventions: Is Source Code Necessary?" (Co-Author), Law Works, Intellectual Property Today, Vol. 4, No. 5, May, 1997
• "The Examination of Computer-Related Inventions by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office,", International Legal Strategy, Vol. IX-6, June, 2000
• "2001 An On-Sale Odyssey: Recent Changes to the On-Sale Bar to Patentability", , Law Works, Intellectual Property Today, Vol. 9, No. 1, January , 2002
• "Invocation of Pfaff and its Pregeny to Obtain Invalidation by On-Sale Bar", International Legal Strategy, Vol. 12-3, March, 2003

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