Matthew D. Zapadka

Matt is a partner in the Intellectual Property and Litigation & Dispute Resolution practices, member of the Emerging Technologies and Life Sciences industry teams, and leader of the Patent Prosecution team.

Matt counsels clients on the protection and enforcement of their intellectual property assets, with a focus on strategic leverage of intellectual property assets with an eye toward favorable transactions or enforcement via litigation. Matt is an experienced commercial litigator, with an emphasis on patent litigation, including experience with district court trials, trials at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”), and International Trade Commission (“ITC”) actions. Matt is experienced with disputes involving other governmental agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), along with district court challenges against agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration.

In his patent role, Matt advises clients on patent prosecution matters, including related regulatory issues such as those that arise at FDA and the FTC, assisting companies ranging in size from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Matt has worked with companies across a variety of sectors, including genetic technologies, diagnostic methods, therapeutic molecules and methods, medical devices and accompanying software, biomolecular engineering, prosthetics, pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cannabis/CBD, nootropic and psychoactive molecules and products, nuclear reactors, software, ultracapacitors, consumer products, genetic data visualization systems, and blockchain applications.

In addition, Matt served as a patent examiner with the USPTO while in law school, examining applications related to photoelectric and thermoelectric devices, which include semiconductor, photovoltaic, and integrated circuit technologies. Matt was also a judicial intern for the Honorable Susan G. Braden at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims where he worked on a number of issues, including a patent dispute over drone technology. Prior to law school, Matt was an engineer for a manufacturing company.