Mark T. Vogelbacker

Overview

Mark Vogelbacker leads Eckert Seamans’ Intellectual Property (IP) Group, overseeing a diverse team of attorneys, agents, paralegals, and staff across several firm offices. With a mechanical engineering background and unique professional experience, he brings a practical, strategic perspective to complex IP matters. His practice spans domestic and international patent, trademark, and copyright procurement, as well as IP licensing, enforcement, and infringement clearance.

Mark’s technical experience includes medical devices, consumer products, power systems, product packaging, and precision light sources and measurement technologies. He has litigated patent and trade secret disputes across a wide range of industries—automotive, medical, optics, and apparel—both in federal court and in inter partes review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). He has also achieved successful outcomes in numerous opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).

Mark began his career as a Fluid Systems Engineer at General Dynamics Electric Boat, contributing to the design and implementation of alterations on Ohio-class nuclear-powered submarines. He later served as a Patent Examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He earned his law degree while working full-time as a patent agent. These experiences reinforced for him the importance of approaching problems in a way that is both efficient and practical.

Outside of his practice, Mark volunteers as a coach with FIRST LEGO League, a robotics program that introduces elementary and middle school students to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Representative Matters

• Advises an Oregon-based footwear manufacturer on design patent strategies and comprehensive patent portfolio management
• Counsels a leading Western New York-based optics company that specializes in precision non-contact thickness measurement and optical inspection systems on utility patent and trademark strategies
• Guides a New Jersey-based pioneering industrial decarbonization research and product development company through various IP challenges, focusing on patent protection for its innovative technologies
• Manages global patent and trademark portfolios for several clients in diverse industries, including filing and enforcement actions in the U.S. and key international markets