James M. Hanifin, Jr.

Overview

Jim Hanifin focuses his practice on securing domestic and international patent protection, particularly in the areas of mechanical and electro-mechanical products and processes, medical devices, clean technologies, industrial equipment, and sports and recreational equipment. Jim is particularly skilled at assisting clients with product clearances, infringement and patent validity opinions, and due diligence, along with related counseling.

Prior to joining Wolf Greenfield, Jim had a 12-year career in industry, where he acquired extensive experience in mechanical design and analysis involving various military hardware systems. As a design engineer at Martin Marietta, GE Aerospace, and RCA Corporation, he was responsible for the mechanical design and development of a wide range of products for automatic test systems, tactical sensors, and communication systems.

Jim also worked as an engineer at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, where he focused on thermal design, analysis, and testing for radar and electronic countermeasure systems.

As a participant in the cooperative education program at Northeastern University, Jim was involved with performing transient analysis studies on power generation stations at Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation and designing automotive electro-mechanical products at Joseph Pollak Corporation.

Experience

• Advised major medical device client on product clearances, third party contested matters, and patent protection issues.
• Worked with Japanese litigation counsel in successfully obtaining a preliminary injunction against a leading medical device company for patent infringement.
• Identified and resolved issues contributing to more favorable terms for client during due diligence of potential acquisition.

Activities

• American Intellectual Property Law Association
• Boston Intellectual Property Law Association
• Jim also serves on and previously chaired the firm's PTO Practice Committee.