Hubbs, Enatsky & Auito Expands IP Law Firm in Northern Virginia and Japan

We are excited to announce the formation of Hubbs, Enatsky & Auito PLLC (“HEA”) (previously, Hubbs, Enatsky & Inoue PLLC), an intellectual property law firm with fully functional offices in the United States and Japan. Our name change reflects HEA’s expansion in services and personnel in its United States and Japan offices.

The firm has more than doubled in size with the addition of Darrin Auito, Hirotsuna Yamashita, Jessica Harrison, and James Judge.  These new members bring many years of experience as counsel at top 25 law firms and examiners and senior level staff (SME and Central Reexamination Unit Supervisor) at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Japan Patent Office (Chief Appeal Examiner and Director).   These members have participated in dozens of AIA post grant proceedings.  HEA is thrilled to add this mix of administrative knowledge, technical and litigation experience to our practice.

HEA is well-positioned to deliver high quality, innovative, and cost-effective intellectual property solutions to clients in the United States, Japan, and around the globe.

Darrin Auito

Darrin Auito is a U.S. patent attorney and founding partner of HEA.  His practice focuses on all aspects of intellectual property, primarily patent drafting and prosecution, litigation (ITC and PTAB), licensing, branding, and corporate due diligence.

Darrin has years of experience developing and implementing strategies that protect his client’s IP assets throughout the world. His clients come from a variety of industries, including automotive, medical device, manufacturing, solar, gaming, and mobile payments. He represents clients in district court, the CAFC, ITC, and USPTO.

Darrin regularly provides seminars addressing emerging legal and technical topics to trade organizations, professional associations, and universities in the United States and Japan.

Prior to forming HEA, Darrin was a partner for several years at a top 25 intellectual property firm in Washington DC, where he designed and managed global IP portfolios and practiced in the patent prosecution and litigation groups.  Prior to law school, he worked as a project engineer at Applied Safety & Ergonomics, Inc., an engineering consulting firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he analyzed product designs and performed accident analysis and reconstruction.

Jessica Harrison

Jessica Harrison is a U.S. patent attorney and partner in HEA’s U.S. office.  Ms. Harrison’s practice focuses on all aspects of strategic patent advising, patent prosecution, patent correction, and post-grant patent litigation.  Ms. Harrison brings her extensive 30 years of patent practice experience and broad technical aptitude to assist clients by advising and litigating Post-Grant Proceeding matters, providing patent application drafting, and full prosecution services.  Ms. Harrison also advises and implements patent correction strategies via Reissue applications and/or Reexamination proceedings.

Ms. Harrison brings experience from having served over 24 years at the USPTO. Early in her career, she examined applications in electronic games and amusement devices, electronic education devices, computer based training systems, and electrical exercising devices. She also examined electrical medical instrumentation including cardiac pacing devices and endoscopic devices. Later, Ms. Harrison served in a wide variety of management roles across the USPTO and gained subject-matter expert (SME) status in multiple areas of technology as well as multiple administrative areas including petitions, special laws cases, Reissues, Reexamination proceedings and Interference proceedings.

After leaving the USPTO, Ms. Harrison worked at one of the largest patent law firms in the U.S. and gained expertise in patent post-grant litigation and patent prosecution. There, Ms. Harrison was sought after in high stakes disputes by numerous patent stakeholders such as attorneys and corporations for her specialized expertise on aspects of USPTO regulations and practices including patent Reissue, Reexamination and Interference practice.

Ms. Harrison presently serves as adjunct faculty for the University of New Hampshire School of Law’s innovative online Patent Practice and Procedures II course. In the course, students from around the globe build on their basic intellectual property and claim drafting skills by learning the law, regulations, customs, and practices for interfacing with the USPTO.

Hirotsuna Yamashita

Hirotsuna Yamashita is a U.S. attorney and a Japanese patent attorney with over 40 years of experience in intellectual property law.  Mr. Yamashita is a partner in HEA’s Japan office and an expert in U.S. and Japanese patent practice.

Mr. Yamashita’s legal, technical, and communication skills allow him to provide specialized advice regarding U.S. patent practice to Japanese clients who plan to file and have filed U.S. patent applications and to highlight differences between Japanese patent practice and US patent practice.

Prior to joining HEA, Mr. Yamashita was a registered patent attorney in Alexandria, Virginia at a top 25 patent law firm for over 8 years.  At this firm, he focused primarily on patent prosecution in the electrical and mechanical arts.  His practice included handling every aspect of U.S. patent prosecution, including prosecuting appeals before the USPTO’s PTAB and filing and prosecuting reissue applications.  Prior to that, Mr. Yamashita worked at the Japan Patent Office (JPO) for more than 20 years.  His career highlights at the JPO included working as the Chief Patent Appeal Examiner and the Director of Image Processing Division.  Mr. Yamashita was also Director of the Washington D.C. Office of the Institute of Intellectual Property, and a consultant at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Switzerland.

James Judge

James Judge is a U.S. patent agent with twenty years’ experience serving Japanese patent Applicants in the preparation, filing, and prosecution of their U.S. applications.  Mr. Judge works from HEA’s Japan office and is fluent in Japanese and English.

Prior to joining HEA, Mr. Judge ran his own office in Osaka, Japan for over fifteen years, where he worked on hundreds of applications, primarily involving electromechanical devices, precision mechanisms, medical instruments, telecommunications, optical devices and device materials, and semiconductor devices.

James also has many years’ experience translating Japanese patent specifications, checking and revising patent-specification translations against the Japanese original, and teaching technical translation.  He frequently gives seminars in Japanese on U.S. patent practice issues.