Thomas R. Makin

Thomas R. Makin, based in the firm's New York office, focuses his practice on patent litigation, both in federal court and before the International Trade Commission. He has represented both patentees and accused infringers across a broad spectrum of electro-mechanical technologies, including automotive and aircraft design, with a specific focus on hybrid vehicles and telematics systems; imaging and display systems in both the consumer electronics and medical device fields; and semiconductor fabrication and circuit design.

In 1997, Mr. Makin received his B.S. in Engineering as well as a B.A. in History from Swarthmore College, where he was inducted into the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. Mr. Makin received his J.D. in 2000 from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar.

Exemplary cases on which Mr. Makin has worked at Kenyon & Kenyon LLP include:

• Soundview v. Sony et al. (D. Conn.) (summary judgment of noninfringement for Sony);
• Leapfrog v. Fisher-Price (D. Del.) (bench trial of no infringement and patent invalidity for Fisher-Price);
• Abbey v. Mercedes-Benz et al. (D. Fla.) (summary judgment for defendants, including Mercedes-Benz);
• Olympus v. Given Imaging (E.D. Pa.) (complex eight patent litigation, settled on behalf of Olympus);
• Fernandez Innovative Tech. v. Toyota et al. (N.D. Ill.) (summary judgment of non-infringement for defendants, including Toyota); and
• Paice LLC v. Toyota et al. (E.D. Tex., International Trade Commission) (complex litigation involving three district court actions, an ITC investigation, and six patents, settled on behalf of Toyota).

Mr. Makin also counsels clients—including clients in the venture capital, private equity, and hedge fund arena—regarding specific intellectual property disputes, the relative value of patents in specific technical fields, and licensing issues. 

Professional Organizations

American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society