John Powell

John Powell brings more than 30 years of experience with intellectual property law to his practice helping clients strategically build and manage their patent portfolios. His work includes proactive and efficient patent preparation and prosecution, representation in transactions involving their technologies, inventions, and products, and assistance in assessing the competitive patent landscape. John's experience includes advising on IP protection strategies in both the United States and internationally, covering a range of technologies including robotics, power electronics, medical devices, control systems, software, high temperature superconductors, and electrically conductive ceramic materials for thermal energy storage. On the transaction side of his practice, John drafts and negotiates patent and technology licensing agreements, development agreements, and other commercial agreements where IP is an important component of the transaction. 

John draws on his nearly two decades of in-house legal experience with major corporations in the cleantech, telecommunications, and defense industries and his educational background as an electrical engineer to shape his advice to clients on how to build their IP portfolios to maximize value. This work includes collaborating with management and engineering teams to identify inventions and help them determine when patent applications should be filed, maintained as trade secrets, or defensively published. John also provides freedom to operate assessments and counseling to help clients understand potential risks in marketing and selling their products and services in light of their competitors' patent portfolios.

One example of his work as IP counsel is his representation of Locus Robotics, a company he has advised since its founding in 2014. He has assisted Locus with building from scratch a substantial international patent portfolio of hundreds of patents and applications worldwide to support hundreds of millions in investments and over a $1 billion valuation.

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Before he returned to private practice, John was vice president and general counsel of American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) and in-house counsel at companies including Motorola and Raytheon. His work at AMSC included leading an international legal case featured on "60 Minutes" over trade secret theft of critical software worth hundreds of millions of dollars by an ex-employee and a Chinese company. This matter involved the institution of several civil IP cases in China by AMSC, one of which went to the Chinese Supreme Court. John and his team collaborated with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which resulted in the DOJ prosecuting and criminally convicting a former AMSC employee and the Chinese company for stealing trade secrets. The matter was eventually settled by a court-ordered mid-eight-figure restitution payment by the Chinese company to AMSC.

John's leadership in the field of intellectual property law is also reflected in his selection as one of three industry leaders who were panelists in the Obama administration's February 2013 launch of its Strategy to Mitigate the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets. John also provided testimony before the U.S. Sentencing Commission at a public hearing on Proposed Amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines regarding trade secret theft and economic espionage.

In addition to his IP work, John has extensive experience mentoring startup companies in the clean energy industry. He currently supports a competition and accelerator program, Cleantech Open – Northeast, that finds, funds, and fosters entrepreneurs with ideas to solve environmental and energy challenges.