Collen IP Intellectual Property Law

Collen IP Intellectual Property Law, P.C. — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Firm overview and current status. Collen IP was a small intellectual-property boutique headquartered at the Holyoke-Manhattan Building, 80 South Highland Avenue, Ossining, New York, reportedly founded in 1996 by co-founders Jane F. Collen and Jess M. Collen. It was a single-office, Greater New York practice, not a BigLaw firm; third-party business databases estimate roughly 20–22 employees and about $6M in annual revenue, but those are algorithmic estimates rather than audited figures and should be treated as indicative only. I found no AmLaw 200 ranking, AmLaw firm ranking, or Chambers ranking for the firm, and none is claimed here. One important caveat on status: per Practus LLP's own announcement (Nov. 3, 2025), attorneys Jess Collen, Jane Collen, James Hastings, Jeffrey Lindenbaum and Kevin Brown — described as "formerly of Collen IP and Rothwell Figg" — joined Practus, and recent TTAB filings list a Practus address in Mount Kisco, NY. The Collen IP team therefore appears to have been absorbed into successor firms, and the firm's practice as such appears to have wound down.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's public profile is centered on trademark, copyright, unfair competition and anti-counterfeiting work, with patent litigation as a secondary line rather than a core franchise. Firm and attorney materials describe federal-court matters in fashion and luxury goods, watches (Swatch and Omega gray-market and trade-dress disputes), consumer products, software and consumer electronics. The patent matters that can be corroborated are modest in scale: the single tracked case, Aspex Eyewear v. Altair Eyewear, concerns mechanical/consumer-optics subject matter (magnetically attached clip-on sunglass lenses), and attorney biographies also describe a semiconductor/flash-memory defense (Keranos, LLC v. Analog Devices, Inc., where the court granted the client's motion to dismiss) and an iPhone external-battery patent dispute (Huang v. GC Technology LLC). Nothing in the record indicates a Wi-Fi/standards-essential, pharmaceutical/Hatch-Waxman, or large semiconductor-portfolio litigation practice.

Side preference. The tracker shows 1 plaintiff-side appearance and 0 defendant-side appearances, with roles recorded as "of counsel" — so the firm appears on the plaintiff side in the one case captured. That sample is too small to support a real claim of side preference, and the broader public record shows work on both sides (plaintiff-side brand enforcement for watch, fashion and consumer-product owners; defense-side work in Keranos and Huang). The accurate characterization is a brand-owner-side IP firm, not an NPE/PAE assertion shop.

Notable cases and outcomes. The most prominent tracked matter is Aspex Eyewear, Inc. et al. v. Altair Eyewear, Inc. (S.D.N.Y., filed August 2002), in which the firm appeared for the plaintiff as of counsel alongside Matthew C. Wagner. The district court granted Altair summary judgment of non-infringement in April 2007 after construing "frame" and "retaining mechanism" against the patentee, and the Federal Circuit affirmed in a nonprecedential decision, 288 F. App'x 697 (Fed. Cir. 2008). A further appeal (No. 2012-1102) was argued in 2013. Related standing precedent from the same patent family, Aspex Eyewear, Inc. v. E'Lite Optik, Inc., 127 F. App'x 493 (Fed. Cir. 2005), is frequently cited, and Wagner's own attorney listing reports a $450,000 settlement for the patent owner in that case (2007 WL 1792005) — an attorney-reported result I could not independently confirm. Firm biographies also claim a favorable Ninth Circuit ruling and equally divided Supreme Court affirmance in Costco Wholesale Corp. v. Omega S.A. for client Omega S.A.; this is a firm-sourced attribution.

PTAB / IPR practice and key people. I found no evidence of a patent IPR, PGR or CBM practice, and no reported AIA trial filings attributable to the firm. The firm's "administrative litigation" volume is at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board — its own materials claim one of the country's most extensive TTAB opposition and cancellation dockets, a claim I could not verify against a published third-party ranking. The two attorneys recorded in the tracker are Jeffrey A. Lindenbaum (patent, trademark, copyright, right-of-publicity and trade-secret litigation in federal trial and appellate courts, plus extensive TTAB experience) and Matthew C. Wagner (Collen IP partner 2000–2010; now General Counsel of PDC Brands and First Vice President of AIPLA), both listed as of counsel. The firm's co-founders and practice leaders were Jess M. Collen (managing partner) and Jane F. Collen (trademark and international brand protection).