John Nemazi’s practice reflects his belief that he is an engineer at heart. John heads the patent prosecution group at Brooks Kushman, where he provides a unique service that combines elements of law, marketing, and design. A company in search of opportunities in new markets often looks for ways to produce a product that competes with products already on the market. John facilitates such efforts by assessing the existing technology and producing a “patent map” that sets forth the market participants and their patent coverage. In this regard, John helps manufacturers find paths to market by designing around existing inventions. While John isn’t alone in offering “design-around” solutions, he frequently takes the process one step further, in essence becoming a co-inventor of the product. By providing a cross-disciplinary mix of design, legal, and strategic advice at an early stage in the product development process, John helps companies avoid spending research and development money needlessly on “false starts” that ultimately cannot be commercialized. And importantly, John’s services can significantly reduce the time required to take a product from conception to production. In addition to his strategic design counsel, John assists clients with “freedom to practice” opinions, ensuring that existing patents will not impede a proposed technology. He also analyzes patented products to provide advice on the patent’s claim coverage—along with advice on how to produce a product that will not infringe those claims, perhaps with enhanced functionality or at a lower cost. In addition, he helps clients respond to threats from patent holders demanding payment for products the client manufactures. Prior to joining the firm, John worked on the General Motors engineering staff as a project engineer in the company’s Advanced Product Engineering Department. He later entered private practice, working on a wide variety of matters, including prosecution, product design, technology licensing, and litigation surrounding mechanical technology, engine controls, and manufacturing processes.