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About Cochran Freund & Young LLC

Meet the Team

World Class Intellectual Property Attorneys

Our lawyers offer full-service Intellectual Property law coverage, including all aspects of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret law. This coverage includes counseling, prosecution, licensing, and litigation. As the protection of Intellectual Property has become more complex and the rules continually change, our long-established relationship with international affiliates supplements our capabilities to provide our clients with strong international protections and legal services.

William W. Cochran

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Mr. Cochran brings more than fifty years of experience to patent law. He began as a Patent Examiner in computer arts at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, then handled radar, semiconductor, laser, and weapons-system work for the Office of Naval Research. Six years at Los Alamos National Laboratory followed, where his caseload ranged across electro-quantum mechanics, cryogenic superconductivity, astrophysics, laser and magnetic-containment fusion, particle-beam weapons, and fuel cells. Later he worked for Digital Equipment Corporation and Hewlett-Packard, where he directed worldwide IP litigation, deepening his grounding in computing technology.

Mr. Cochran has served as co-counsel for small clients squaring off against Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, and other large corporations, has testified as an expert witness in high-profile cases, and recently won a landmark color-trademark ruling at the Federal Circuit.

Samuel M. Freund, PhD.

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Dr. Freund, a Denver patent lawyer with over thirty years in intellectual property law, has drafted more than 270 issued patents. His technical reach is extensive: actinide chemistry, explosives, conducting polymer films, ionic liquids, solar cells, x-ray and other lasers, nuclear and plasma physics, ultrasonics, cryogenics, flow cytometry, anthrax strain identification, mass-spectrometry DNA and protein work, and surgical instrumentation, among many other fields.

Trained as a physicist, he held research fellowships at Canada's National Research Council and the National Bureau of Standards before joining Los Alamos National Laboratory's laser isotope separation program in 1975. He has published more than fifty peer-reviewed articles and holds seven patents of his own.

After earning his J.D. in 1981, Dr. Freund spent twenty-nine years negotiating research and licensing agreements, writing patent opinions, handling infringement and inventorship disputes, and serving as an IP expert witness.

James R. Young

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James R. Young secures U.S. and foreign patents across a broad span of technical industries, with particular depth in solid-state physics: thin-film and surface analysis, laser radar, waveguides, polarization control, optical correlation, and liquid-crystal and electrochromic devices, alongside image processing, search engines, and photogrammetry. His work also reaches into solar, wind, and alternative fuels through long engagements with the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

He has structured technology deals for a global roster of clients, including a photonics joint R&D agreement and cross-license with Lockheed Martin, water-filtration licenses with Clorox and Germany's Brita, hydroelectric technology with Austria's VA Tech, and speech-recognition licenses with United Parcel Service and Osaka Gas.

Christopher Whitham

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Mr. Whitham pairs his patent practice with twelve years in software engineering and a license as a professional engineer. Trained at the Colorado School of Mines, he began at Setpoint, Inc., building advanced process-control and manufacturing-resource-planning software for oil refineries and chemical plants.

He then became one of the three founding members of Encorp, Inc., where he developed user-interface and remote-communications software linking proprietary generator controllers to third-party hardware, handled the company's full IT integration, and rose to Director of Software Engineering, overseeing firmware and hardware development. He also helped shape the IEEE P1547.3 standard for distributed power resources. He earned his J.D. from the University of Colorado and joined the Colorado Bar in 2006.

William O'Meara

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William O'Meara, an aerospace engineer by training, has built a patent practice spanning agricultural and industrial machinery, automotive devices, medical equipment, mining and oil-and-gas tools, and a deep run of high-tech work: computers, printers, imaging and mass-storage devices, integrated-circuit packaging, digital cameras, wireless devices, and automotive vision systems. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and a J.D. from the University of Kansas, then worked as a mechanical engineer before entering patent law.

Over his career he has secured patents for Coors, Graphic Packaging, Hewlett-Packard, Avago, and Texas Instruments, often stepping into in-house roles. Beyond patents, he handles infringement and validity opinions, due diligence, and a large trademark practice exceeding several hundred registrations.

Ancel W. Lewis, Jr.

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Mr. Lewis has practiced intellectual property law in the Denver and Fort Collins areas for more than fifty years, handling a broad mix of IP matters with particular expertise in electronic and electromechanical technology. He began his career as a Patent Examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Bar Association, the Colorado Bar Association, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association. His published writing includes a piece on the misuse defense in copyright actions for the Denver Law Center Journal and two co-authored articles in The Colorado Lawyer, on the Berne Convention and on U.S. Customs enforcement of IP rights.

John Hayden

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Mr. Hayden brings more than twenty years to intellectual property work, concentrated in patent preparation and prosecution. His technical range is broad: agricultural equipment, acoustic networks for vehicle and gunshot location, antennas, blood separation, dental abutments, seismic geological mapping, oil-field equipment, wind energy, power converters and variable-speed drives, waste-oxidation reactors, metal buildings, soil and groundwater remediation, gun sights, oscillators, and heat exchangers, among others.

That fluency traces back to nearly fifteen years as a manufacturing engineer at AT&T, where he programmed automated circuit-board assembly equipment, implemented Just-In-Time manufacturing, and built workflow simulations. His academic background spans mathematics, mechanical engineering, and business, capped by a J.D. from the University of Denver. He was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 1996 and registered as a patent attorney in 1997.

Thomas S. Birney

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Born in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, in 1954, Mr. Birney holds bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both earned in 1977, and a J.D. from Boston University, completed in 1980. He is a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma honor societies. Admitted to the Colorado bar in 1980 and registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, he focuses his work on patents, trademarks, and copyrights.