Client-Focused Approach
Nahoko Ono has expertise in all aspects of intellectual property ranging from negotiating agreements to litigation. She works with a wide range of clients that include universities, startup companies, and multinational corporations. She believes in building a solid trust relationship with her clients and focuses her advice on her clients’ business goals.
Global Vision
Nahoko was born and raised in Japan, and also spent periods of time in her childhood in the United States and Mexico. She attended Sophia University in Tokyo, and went on to earn two master degrees in the United States and a doctoral degree in Tokyo. Nahoko has a global vision both professionally and culturally, which plays an important role in the strategies she uses to achieve her clients’ intellectual property goals.
Nahoko believes a global vision is essential to the practice of patent law because different legal regimes provide different protection for a single invention. Nahoko continues to develop her expertise in international patent law. She was mentored by some legends in intellectual property, including serving as an intern for the former Chief Judge Rader of the Federal Circuit and maintaining a working relationship with former Chief Judge Iimura of IP High Court of Japan. She has assisted Judge Iimura with his international speeches for over two decades. She was awarded a scholarship as a visiting researcher by the Max Planck Institute in Germany. With those experiences, Nahoko can identify a problem to be solved, apply the law to facts, and come up with an optimal solution for her clients from a global perspective.
Problem Solver
Prior to being an intellectual property attorney, Nahoko had a career in academia, and she is simply passionate about solving a problem. She authored a number of publications and presentations both in English and Japanese that propose various solutions in the fields of patent eligibility to enforcement, inventorship, second medical use, technology transfer, anti-counterfeit, employee invention, FTA, traditional knowledge, and security interests.
Nahoko’s problem solving is practical, largely due to her former legal career at Goldman Sachs Asset Management in Japan. She uses her knowledge of finance law and her strategic thinking to assure the success of her client’s new and established businesses. Nahoko assisted in successfully establishing the first offshore fund (limited partnership) for the Japanese government pension fund. She also assisted in successfully obtaining a license and launching products in a mutual fund market in Japan.