Ben D. Tobor has practiced intellectual property law in Houston since 1975. Ben focuses his practice on counseling clients in all aspects of acquisition, enforcement, and licensing of intellectual property rights including patents, copyrights, and trademarks, both in the United States and internationally. He has experience working with companies to protect and enhance their key brands and corporate images through strategic management of their worldwide trademark portfolios.
His practice includes representing international and domestic corporations, as well as individuals, in the fields of medical equipment and devices, "oil patch" equipment, restaurants, air conditioning and heating equipment, refuse collection and disposal, chemicals and chemical processing, and computer software, among others.
One of Ben's clients, for whom he obtained numerous patents in the field of coronary stents, was awarded the 1996 Texas Inventor of the Year Award by the State Bar of Texas. This patent work also earned him special recognition in IP Worldwide magazine's August 2001 special report, "Patent Plums," which recognized "the most valuable U.S. patents and the lawyers who nurtured them." He was also recognized in IP Worldwide magazine's August 2002 special report, "10 Patents that Changed the World," as having been the attorney that obtained one of those patents. In 2006, his client was inducted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
He is a past President of the Houston Young Lawyers Association, a Life Fellow of the Houston and Texas Bar Foundations, and a Charter Fellow of the Houston Young Lawyers Foundation. Ben provides volunteer legal services for various charitable and public service organizations, including Justice for Children, The Escape Center, and Cenikor.
Prior to moving to Houston, Ben served as a Patent Examiner with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and as a law clerk to Judge Phillip B. Baldwin of the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals in Washington, D.C., which was the predecessor court of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
