Edward A. Pennington is a Partner in the Intellectual Property Practice of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP.
Mr. Pennington is a registered patent attorney with an educational background in both physics and economics. He also taught statistics in college while attending graduate school on a Teaching Fellowship. His interest in litigation started early in his career, taking court-appointed indigent criminal defense cases to gain immediate courtroom experience. Almost immediately out of school, he tried to a verdict a successful Lanham Act defensive action in the Western District of Pennsylvania and followed that up with a continuous stream of patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and contract trials and settlements over the last 30 years. His litigation matters have spanned virtually every technical field, including vaccines, viral vectors and related bio-pharma technologies; computer hardware and software; location technology such as personal navigation, geo-fencing, telematics and VOIP-based 9-1-1 call routing; cellular wireless encoding schemes including CDMA, GSM, 3G, 4G, LTE, and 5G and corresponding standards; WIFI networks, power control and various standards; encryption and cryptography; nuclear reactors; materials science including alloys, ceramics and plastics; 3D printing; aircraft engines; diesel and gasoline engine design and components; electric power storage and generation, including solar arrays, wind turbines, and nuclear fusion and fission; coatings and substrates; sporting equipment including golf clubs, balls and gloves, martial arts protective equipment; water sports including sail boards, kayaks, foam flotation devices and powered craft; and medical devices including artificial joints and spinal implants, dental implants and surgical techniques, endoscopes, surgical clamps, catheters, surgical devices and valves; and satellite communications including DBS transmission and reception, antennas, transmitters, GPS, and other space based communication networks and systems such as IRIDIUM constellation satellites, receivers and transmitters.
Mr. Pennington has been admitted to and practiced in all major patent venues, and a good number of minor ones, including the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, the Eastern District of Texas, the Southern, Middle, and Northern Districts of Florida, the Eastern District of Virginia, the District of Maryland, the District of New Jersey, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and all of the Districts Courts of California. He has also tried patent cases before the U.S. International Trade Commission and maintains an active docket there. His clients over the years have included major universities, U.S. government research laboratories, defense contractors, Fortune 50 companies, as well as independent inventors, research laboratories, and smaller, growth-oriented and technology-driven companies.
Mr. Pennington is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Intellectual Property Law Section of the Virginia State Bar, and the Licensing Executives Society.
Before joining Smith, Gambrell & Russell, Mr. Pennington worked at Bingham McCutchen LLP, joining that firm when it combined with Swidler Berlin, where he was chairman of Swidler Berlin’s IP practice group. Before that, he was the managing partner of Morgan & Finnegan’s Washington, D.C., office. Mr. Pennington is a past Board Member of the Virginia State Bar, Intellectual Property Section.
Mr. Pennington received his B.S. and M.A. degrees from West Virginia University. In graduate school, he was a Teaching Fellow and taught Statistics. He received his J.D. from the George Mason University School of Law, where he was a member of the Jessup International Moot Court team. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Virginia and registered to practice before the United States Patent Trademark Office. He is also admitted to appear before the following Courts: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia; the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland; and the U.S. Supreme Court.
District of Columbia Bar Association
Virginia State Bar, Intellectual Property Law Section
International Trade Commission Trial Lawyers Association
Presenter, What’s New for ITC Litigation and Enforcement: Trends and Challenges Explored, The Knowledge Group (March 2021)
Lecturer, Implications of the Verizon-Vonage Patent Infringement Judgment, VON Conference (March 19, 2007).
“Federal Circuit Judge Jabs Attorney On ‘Sloppy Lawyering’ In Fee Row,” Law 360, November 2020.
“Federal Circuit Affirms Alice Ax of Lost Luggage Patent,” Law 360, November 2019.