Patent Expert Witness Experience
S Systems, Inc. is an established digital signal processing consulting firm specializing in software, especially hand-coded assembler for DSP (signal processing) and embedded chips, mostly in the audio and music industries.
John Strawn, Ph.D. (the founder of S Systems, Inc.) is available as a testifying expert witness in patent litigation. He brings to the table testifying experience as well as a few decades of experience in software, translation, digital audio and music. He has access to good university libraries as well as offering a private archive from the early days of digital audio, digital audio compression (like MP-3), and computer music. He brings extensive contacts in the field of digital audio and music as well.
Since he established S Systems, Inc., Dr. Strawn has been involved in the following cases. You can view the rest of Dr. Strawn's resume online or download Dr. Strawn's resume as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file which contains this list.
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Date: |
2007 - 2008 |
Law firm: Fish and Richardson, Atlanta |
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Case |
Nice Systems Inc. and Nice Systems Ltd. v. Witness Systems Inc. Civil Action No. 06-311-JJF, Delaware District. |
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Project: |
Testifying expert for the defense involving telephony, software, hardware architecture, digital recording. Prepare claim charts, expert reports. Deposed January 2008. Testified at one-week trial, Wilmington, DE, January 2008. |
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Status: |
Hung jury. Retrial anticipated fall 2008. |
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Date: |
2007 |
Law firm: undisclosed, Southern California |
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Case |
Undisclosed, digital music technology and software, encryption, MIDI. |
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Project: |
Prior art research; documents from my own files; commentary on prior art found by me and by attorneys; meetings with attorneys and their client in Los Angeles. |
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Status: |
Settled before trial at terms favorable to my client. |
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Date: |
2006 - 2007 |
Law firm in Texas; US telecommunications company |
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Case |
Undisclosed, involving digital audio hardware. |
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Project: |
Prepare claim charts, technology background. Two-day meeting with attorney in Palo Alto. |
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Status: |
My work concluded. |
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Date: |
2005 - 2007 |
Fish and Richardson, San Diego |
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Case |
Lucent Technologies Inc. v. Gateway, Inc., et al., and Microsoft Corporation, Intervener. Case No. 02-CV-2060 B (CAB) consolidated with 03-CV-0699 B (CAB) and 03-CV-1108 B (CAB). |
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Project: |
Testifying expert for Microsoft (defendant) involving audio compression and MP3. Prepared 8 expert reports (total 331 pages) on non-infringement and invalidity including 20 claim charts and 15 other substantive attachments. Analyzed over 4000 pages of C/C++ source code; analysis of assembly and machine code. Worked directly with German documents. Deposed, November 3 2006. Two days testimony at three-week jury trial, February 7-8, 2007. Wikipedia entry on this case. |
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Status: |
Appeal expected during 2008. |
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Date: |
2007 |
Meyer and Associates Co. LPA, Columbus, Ohio |
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Case |
Health Science Products LLC and Kairos & Associates, In., v. Sage Software SB, Inc. |
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Project: |
Analyze functionality of database software before and after release of ACT 2005 (Version 7.0). Analyze software using databases provided by plaintiffs. |
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Status: |
Settled, payments to affected parties in progress 2008. |
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Date: |
2005 - 2006 |
Black Lowe & Graham, Seattle |
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Case |
Digeo, Inc. v. Audible, Inc., Case No. C05-00464-JLR, Seattle |
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Project: |
Named expert for plaintiff. Prepare expert reports. Deposed for Markman hearing, February 2006. |
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Status: |
Appeal in progress, March 2007. |
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Date: |
2006 |
Law firm in Palo Alto; Japanese consumer manufacturer |
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Case |
Undisclosed |
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Project: |
Prepare claim charts on 24 hour notice. Assist in preparation of tutorial. |
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Status: |
Case still in progress late 2007 but I am no longer involved due to schedule conflicts with previous clients. |
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Date: |
2006- |
Law firm in Palo Alto; US audio manufacturer on East Coast |
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Case |
Undisclosed |
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Project: |
Teach technology to attorneys; draft claim charts. |
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Status: |
Case still in progress late 2007 but I am no longer involved due to schedule conflicts with previous clients. |
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Date: |
2004 - 2005 |
Law firm in New York; US chip manufacturer |
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Case |
Undisclosed |
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Project: |
Provide and supervise an expert witness colleague who prepared an expert report on infringement. |
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Status: |
Settled on terms favorable to my client. |
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Date: |
2004 - 2005 |
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, New York office |
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Case |
Undisclosed |
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Project: |
For litigation involving music downloading, identify prior art. Personal introduction to another party who in turn provided documents and expert witness testimony. |
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Status: |
Settled on terms favorable to my client, early 2005 |
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Date: |
2003 |
Undisclosed |
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Case |
Undisclosed |
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Project: |
For a case involving a well-known computer manufacturer, read six articles and two Ph.D. dissertations, all in German, on audio compression, scanning for (and finding) specific prior art as directed by attorney. |
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Status: |
Status unknown |
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Date: |
2003 |
Undisclosed |
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Case |
undisclosed |
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Project: |
For a well-known manufacturer of digital hardware, investigate prior art for hardware relating to patents on virtual memory and cache memory. In addition to library work, provide information from my own files, and gain access to files at private Bay-area institutions. |
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Status: |
Settled on terms favorable to my client, 2005 |
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Date: |
1997 - 1998 |
Cesari and McKenna, Boston |
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Case |
Lucent (plaintiff) vs. Young Chang |
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Project: |
Served on the expert witness team helping defend a major music instrument manufacturer against a patent violation lawsuit relating to music synthesis. I advised attorneys about digital hardware, software, and architecture. I obtained obscure historical documents and information from various public and private sources. I provided provide personal archives from the 1970's, and I helped the attorneys find other expert witnesses for the team. |
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Status: |
Settled on terms favorable to my client, 1998. |
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Date: |
1996 |
Undisclosed |
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Case |
Undisclosed |
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Project: |
For a major karaoke manufacturer outside the USA, I conducted prior art research which helped the company successfully fend off patent violation actions in the area of digital graphics. |
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Status: |
Settled on terms favorable to my client, 1996 |
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Date: |
1995 |
Undisclosed |
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Case |
Undisclosed |
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Project: |
For a Bay-area music instrument manufacturer, I conducted prior art research and prepared a claim chart in the area of music synthesis, especially reverberation. This also included manuals for custom music synthesizers, from my own library. |
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Status: |
Settled, terms unknown, 1995 |
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Date: |
1994 |
Undisclosed |
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Case |
Undisclosed |
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Project: |
For the same major karaoke manufacturer outside the USA as above, I conducted prior art research which helped the company successfully fend off patent violation actions in the area of digital music synthesis, specifically chorus in karaoke background using MIDI and sampling synthesis. I used contacts in the Bay area to find manuals for hardware prior art for which the manufacturer had gone out of business. |
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Status: |
Settled on terms favorable to my client, 1994 |
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Date: |
1994 |
Small, Larkin, Los Angeles |
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Case |
Digital Theatre Systems vs. L.C. Concepts (plaintiff) |
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Project: |
For this well-known manufacturer of cinema sound equipment, I participated in the successful resolution of a patent infringement action. I studied and commented on patents and correspondence in English and German. I met with German- and English-speaking corporate and engineering staff in the Bay Area and Las Vegas. Through personal contacts in German-speaking areas in Europe, I located prior art hardware in various private firms. |
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Status: |
Settled on terms favorable to my client, 1994 |
When Dr. Strawn was manager of an R&D group for Yamaha (more details in his on-line resume), his group was trained by a crack patent attorney on the theory and practice of obtaining patents. The group was awarded several patents:
| 5,245,130 | 1993 | Polyphonic breath controlled electronic musical instrument |
| 5,288,938 | 1994 | Method and apparatus for controlling electronic tone generation in accordance with a detected type of performance gesture |
| 5,386,568 | 1995 | Apparatus and method for linking software modules |
| 5,422,956 | 1995 | Sound parameter controller for use with a microphone |
| 5,536,902 | 1996 | Method of and apparatus for analyzing and synthesizing a sound by extracting and controlling a sound parameter |
| 5,541,358 | 1996 | Position-based controller for electronic musical instrument |
| 5,569,871 | 1996 | Musical tone generating apparatus employing microresonator array |
For more information on Dr. Strawn's background, see his on-line resume. For more information on his litigation support work, contact (Dr.) John Strawn .
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