Overview

Charles (Drew) Hayes is an experienced intellectual property attorney who focuses his practice on assisting clients with cutting-edge patent, trademark, and internet issues, including worldwide IP portfolio development, procurement, and enforcement. Drew regularly counsels senior executives and engineering managers on how to formulate and execute custom IP protection strategies that align with their business goals and needs. He has extensive experience related to merger and acquisition IP due diligence and obtaining and enforcing trademarks in the United States and abroad. Drew also prosecutes U.S. and foreign patents in a variety of industries.

Additional intellectual property law experience includes providing strategic advice on technology portfolio development for both startups and established companies; assisting with worldwide patent and trademark prosecution (PCT, Madrid, and Paris Convention); managing trademark oppositions, cancellations, and ex parte re-examination proceedings (extensive EUTM opposition experience); litigating internet disputes — UDRP, social media, and website content; providing patentability, freedom-to-operate, infringement, and invalidity analyses; providing technology-related business contract drafting and analysis, including advice on terms, scope, and obligations; and conducting IP due diligence.

In addition to his intellectual property practice, Drew maintains an active civil litigation practice drawing on his Ohio and Pennsylvania admissions. He has served as local counsel in cybersecurity class action defense litigation in Philadelphia, has represented clients in commercial and property damage litigation in Pennsylvania state courts, and has handled civil matters in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Drew has experience working with a wide variety of clients, with particular depth in artificial intelligence and machine learning; semiconductor manufacturing technologies, including sputtering target design and production; radio frequency power measurement and analysis; data encryption and communication authentication; medical devices and instruments; autonomous navigation; Internet of Things; augmented reality; automotive technologies; water analysis equipment; and outdoor power equipment.

Drew has significant experience protecting artificial intelligence and machine learning inventions. He has drafted and prosecuted patent applications directed to AI-based industrial process control systems — including a system for the brewing industry that estimates, in real time, values that traditionally require days of laboratory testing — machine learning and computer vision for autonomous navigation, including robotic mowers and submersibles, and AI and large language model (LLM) applications for vehicle infotainment systems, including speech recognition, environmental monitoring, and eye tracking.

After obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a concentration in electrical engineering from Geneva College, Drew earned his J.D. from Capital University School of Law.

Representative Cases & Matters

  • Prosecuted patents to issuance in the electrical, computer-implemented, mechanical, materials science, biomedical, and chemical arts
  • Drafted and prosecuted patent applications directed to artificial intelligence and machine learning inventions, including AI-based process control, autonomous navigation, and large language model applications for vehicle infotainment
  • Represented a manufacturer in a patent inventorship dispute, securing the adverse party's withdrawal of its inventorship claim and abandonment of its competing patent application
  • Negotiated a trademark coexistence agreement under which the adverse party paid the client a six-figure sum to enter into the agreement
  • Litigated dozens of trademark oppositions and cancellations throughout the world
  • Prepared and filed one of the first ex parte trademark re-examination proceedings under the Trademark Modernization Act
  • Represented clients in Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) actions
  • Secured transfer of ownership of infringing domain names and social media pages from adverse parties to clients
  • Prepared patentability, validity, freedom-to-operate, and product clearance opinions supporting product launches and design decisions
  • Served as local counsel in the defense of a cybersecurity class action in Philadelphia
  • Represented an online marketplace in litigation against major social media platforms, defeating the defendants' attempted removal to federal court and securing remand to state court
  • Successfully represented a Pennsylvania property owner against a pool installation company, an excavation contractor, and a neighboring homeowner for the destruction of the client's trees and persistent drainage damage caused by pool construction and regrading — including uncovering, through his own investigation, a concealed water detention system outlet discharging directly onto the client's property

Credentials

Education

Capital University School of Law, J.D.

Geneva College, B.S.E., concentration in electrical engineering

Admissions – Court

  • US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Admissions – State

  • Ohio
  • Pennsylvania

Professional & Civic

Professional Activities

Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Past Chair, IEEE Cleveland Section

Corresponding Member, IEEE-USA Intellectual Property Committee

Member, Cleveland Intellectual Property Law Association

Member, American Intellectual Property Law Association

Member, International Trademark Association — Technology Transformation Committee, Internet Governance Subcommittee

Community Involvement

Board Member, Operation Phoenix Rising, a Veteran Service Organization

President, New Hampton Master Association, Inc.

News & Insights

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