KUMIKO KITAOKA
Ms. Kumiko Kitaoka has been practicing law to deliver justice and protect important legal and economic interests for her clients. Kumiko has handled numerous high-stakes disputes of electronics companies, trading companies, semiconductor manufacturers, medical device companies, biologics and pharmaceutical companies, utility companies, financial institutions, and individual litigants. Kumiko has worked as a medical malpractice expert, a patent agent, and an advisor/counsel for intellectual property transactions. Kumiko has been appointed as an associate judge by the Japan Supreme Court. Kumiko has been retained to provide reports on international arbitration, standard essential patents, and trade secrets, for projects commissioned by the Japanese government. Kumiko has given lectures about the intellectual property protection of metaverse products, trade secret law, insurance coverage issues involving traffic accidents that caused brain injuries, inter partes review (IPR) practices at the USPTO, and alternative dispute resolution.
Education
George Washington University Law School
J.D., 2019
George Washington University Law School
LL.M., 2014
Tokyo Medical University
2015 Ph.D.
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
- Lead trial attorney in medical malpractice cases that realized a satisfactory settlement agreement for plaintiffs.
- Lead counsel in arbitrations involving cryptocurrency disputes
- Lead counsel for a pharmaceutical patent dispute arising from an infringement of a patent directed to a method of manufacturing a product, iwhich the infringement liability was found as alleged.
- Outside counsel to assist emerging information technology companies with a variety of legal issues.
- Outside counsel to biotechnology companies concerning protection of trade secrets and other confidential information.
- Counsel to a medical research entity seeking compliance with FDA regulations.
- Outside counsel to medical device companies with compliance, licensing, and corporate matters.
- Contractor to conduct research and analysis on standard essential patent disputes.
- Counsel to assist IoT companies obtaining patent protection for core technologies.
- Counsel to assist fashion companies obtaining trademark protection for products and services.
- Counsel to assist genetic companies obtaining patent protection for new products.
- Counsel to advise an internet domain register on regulatory issues.
- Counsel to advise an industry association on anticompetition issues.
- Counsel to advise a startup on employment, patent transaction, licensing, valuation.
PUBLICATIONS
- Kumiko Kitaoka, Patent Exhaustion Connects Common Law to Equity: Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., 17 Chi.-Kent J. Intell. Prop. 96 (2018).
- Kitaoka, Kumiko (2021) Is Information Property? Distinctive Genetic Information Has an Answer, 48 Ohio N.U.L Rev. 43 (2021).
- Kumiko Kitaoka, Reproductive Privacy in the World: Critical Examination of June Medical Services, L.L.C. v. Russo and Buck v. Bell, 28 Wash. & Lee J. Civ. Rts. & Soc. Just. 101 (2022).
LICENSURE
- Licensed to practice law in Japan.
- Admitted to New York and DC.
- Admitted to the District Court for the Southern District of NY, and the Eastern District of NY.