Walter Kawula

Walter J. Kawula

Partner

200 West Madison Street
Suite 2700
Chicago, Illinois 60606

Primary Practices

Walter J. Kawula, Jr. applies his real-world knowledge as an inventor and engineer to provide his clients with experienced patent litigation and prosecution services. As a patent attorney, he draws from his extensive legal and engineering experience to offer expertise in patent applications, prior art analysis, product clearances, patent appeals and analysis of competitors’ designs. In addition, he brings a unique perspective to data security and data privacy issues with his technology background.

Walter engages technical experts to develop testimony for trial and patent claim construction hearings. Walter is a skilled interviewer who can identify the patentable aspects of an engineer’s innovations and communicate those findings to a district court judge hearing a patent case.

Walter leverages his experience in technology and patent law when performing due diligence reviews of intellectual property portfolios and open source code compliance, and data security and data privacy reviews.

Walter’s industry experience includes designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and circuit boards for telecommunications switching equipment, manufactured by Rockwell International. He also invented a circuit for multiplexing signaling data with traffic data in an electronic cross-connect (U.S. Patent No. 4,937,820).

In addition to his professional background as an electrical engineer, Walter has experience with the intellectual property and data security/data privacy aspects of various technologies, including semiconductor device fabrication, digital telephony protocols, Internet protocols and addressing, Internet programming languages, industrial networks and embedded real-time computer systems. Walter also has experience with computer peripheral communications, computer disk drives and file systems, relational databases and data mining, computer programming, cellular telephone protocols; radio frequency transmission and reception, television tuners, and mobile commerce/mobile applications. This broad base of knowledge enables Walter to quickly grasp complex technologies and provide better, more efficient legal results.

Professional History

  • Partner, Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP, 2015-present
  • Partner, Husch Blackwell LLP, 2008-15
  • Partner, Welsh & Katz, Ltd., 1994-2008

 

Credentials

Education
  • Chicago-Kent College of Law, J.D., 1994
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, B.S., 1985
Bar Admissions

State of Illinois, 1994

 

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 1994; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 2001; U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 1996

Memberships & Affiliations

American Bar Association, Member

 

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), Member

 

Sedona Conference, Working Group 11: Data Security and Privacy Liability, Member