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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.

Date:

2007 - 2008

Law firm: Fish and Richardson, Atlanta
 

Case

Nice Systems Inc. and Nice Systems Ltd. v. Witness Systems Inc. Civil Action No. 06-311-JJF, Delaware District.

 

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.

 

Status:

Hung jury. Retrial anticipated fall 2008.

Date:

2007

Law firm: undisclosed, Southern California
 

Case

Undisclosed, digital music technology and software, encryption, MIDI.

 

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.

 

Status:

Settled before trial at terms favorable to my client.

Date:

2006 - 2007

Law firm in Texas; US telecommunications company
 

Case

Undisclosed, involving digital audio hardware.

 

Project:

Prepare claim charts, technology background. Two-day meeting with attorney in Palo Alto.               

 

Status:

My work concluded.

Date:

2005 - 2007

Fish and Richardson, San Diego
 

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).

 

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.

 

Status:

Appeal expected during 2008.

Date:

2007

Meyer and Associates Co. LPA, Columbus, Ohio
 

Case

Health Science Products LLC and Kairos & Associates, In., v. Sage Software SB, Inc.

 

Project:

Analyze functionality of database software before and after release of ACT 2005 (Version 7.0). Analyze software using databases provided by plaintiffs.

 

Status:

Settled, payments to affected parties in progress 2008.

Date:

2005 - 2006

Black Lowe & Graham, Seattle
 

Case

Digeo, Inc. v. Audible, Inc., Case No. C05-00464-JLR, Seattle

 

Project:

Named expert for plaintiff. Prepare expert reports. Deposed for Markman hearing, February 2006.

 

Status:

Appeal in progress, March 2007.

Date:

2006

Law firm in Palo Alto; Japanese consumer manufacturer
 

Case

Undisclosed

 

Project:

Prepare claim charts on 24 hour notice. Assist in preparation of tutorial.                                           

 

Status:

Case still in progress late 2007 but I am no longer involved due to schedule conflicts with previous clients.

Date:

2006-

Law firm in Palo Alto; US audio manufacturer on East Coast
 

Case

Undisclosed

 

Project:

Teach technology to attorneys; draft claim charts.

 

Status:

Case still in progress late 2007 but I am no longer involved due to schedule conflicts with previous clients.      

Date:

2004 - 2005

Law firm in New York; US chip manufacturer
 

Case

Undisclosed

 

Project:

Provide and supervise an expert witness colleague who prepared an expert report on infringement.

 

Status:

Settled on terms favorable to my client.

Date:

2004 - 2005

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, New York office
 

Case

Undisclosed

 

Project:

For litigation involving music downloading, identify prior art. Personal introduction to another party who in turn provided documents and expert witness testimony.

 

Status:

Settled on terms favorable to my client, early 2005

Date:

2003

Undisclosed
 

Case

Undisclosed

 

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.

 

Status:

Status unknown

Date:

2003

Undisclosed
 

Case

undisclosed

 

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.

 

Status:

Settled on terms favorable to my client, 2005

Date:

1997 - 1998

Cesari and McKenna, Boston
 

Case

Lucent (plaintiff) vs. Young Chang

 

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.

 

Status:

Settled on terms favorable to my client, 1998.

Date:

1996

Undisclosed
 

Case

Undisclosed

 

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.

 

Status:

Settled on terms favorable to my client, 1996

Date:

1995

Undisclosed
 

Case

Undisclosed

 

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.

 

Status:

Settled, terms unknown, 1995

Date:

1994

Undisclosed
 

Case

Undisclosed

 

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.

 

Status:

Settled on terms favorable to my client, 1994

Date:

1994

Small, Larkin, Los Angeles
 

Case

Digital Theatre Systems vs. L.C. Concepts (plaintiff)

 

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.

 

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

In addition Dr. Strawn was co-inventor on this patent involving micromachining:

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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