Dion M. Bregman

Dion M. Bregman has been an IP practitioner since 1998, drawing inspiration from his father, a criminal defense lawyer who once clerked for Nelson Mandela.

However, Bregman's father tried discouraging him from pursuing law, saying he'd be chained to a desk all day.

"As a result, I initially pursued an engineering career," Bregman said. "However, I soon decided to give up that profession to travel and explore the world beyond my hometown in South Africa. Eventually, I ran out of money and returned home, where I studied law school at night and earned my J.D. from the University of Johannesburg."

Today, his focus is primarily centered on trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

His career highlights include a landmark victory for Zebra Technologies, where his team invalidated four patents crucial to RFID location tracking, thereby enabling Zebra to further innovate in the RFID space across various industries.

Bregman's influence extends to the forefront of technology, as demonstrated by his work with Volta. He played a pivotal role in securing design patents for Volta's revolutionary electric vehicle charging stations, which offer free charging funded by advertising. Now under Shell's ownership, these stations exemplify the technical challenges faced when presenting cases to the PTAB.

"It's very technical, and incredibly hard to make your case at the PTAB," Bregman said. "First, you need to find existing earlier patients you can use to invalidate claims. Then, you must convince a panel of three technically trained judges who work for the U.S. Patent Office that the patent office made a mistake."

Looking to trends, one notable example is emerging across the pond, he said.

"Europe has changed its patent system and combined into a single court system that covers all countries in the EU," Bregman said. "This represents the biggest change of the last 20 years and will have a big impact."

He also noted that in the past five years, he's seen a shift in the preferred venues for plaintiffs filing patent cases.

"About 80% used to be filed in the Eastern District of Texas," Bregman said. "Then, the Western District of Texas began changing its rules to lure plaintiffs there. Now, Delaware courts are also seeing more patent filings as the jurisdiction has become able to provide speedy trials."