Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP

Howard M. Gitten Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP Counsel West Palm Beach Tel 561.820.0230 Fax 888.325.9504 Miami Download VCard

Having worked both in-house at a cutting edge photonics company, and in private practice, Howard brings a unique perspective to technology law. He brings a business perspective to technology issues and his technology background to business issues. As a registered patent attorney, Howard, along with his colleagues in the Intellectual Property Department, not only know how best to protect a client's unique assets, but how best to make them marketable and best use intellectual property for competitive advantage. Howard has advised his clients in instituting cradle-to-grave IP regimes, to licensing IP and building joint development programs around a client's IP.

Howard's clients have ranged from basement tinkerers to privately held start-ups to Fortune 100 companies throughout the world. He counsels across a range of technologies including cloud computing, lasers, fiber optics, nanotechnology including MEMS devices and manufacture thereof, toys, RF identification devices, laboratory support equipment, catheters and other medical devices, and computer software and hardware, including printer architectures, computer hibernation protocols, encryption techniques, and optical scanning and displays. In addition to protecting technology, Howard advises his clients when navigating the treacherous waters of other's property rights through the conducting of patent and trademark validity and infringement investigations.

Howard is certified by The Florida Bar as a specialist in Intellectual Property Law. This certification is the first in Intellectual Property Law in the United States. He is a member of the first class of Board Certified Intellectual Property Attorneys in Florida.

• "STAT! Protecting The Heart of the Company, The Importance of Intellectual Property," speaker, Medical Entrepreneur Symposium, April 20, 2013.
• "How to Fund Your Company Without Investors: What Your Customers and Suppliers Know But May Not Be Telling You," presenter, University of Central Florida Incubator, Winter Springs, Florida, October 23, 2012.
• "Reverse Investor Pitch," panelist, New Tech Community, April 19, 2012.
• "STAT! Protecting the Patent," speaker, Medical Entrepreneur Symposium, March 31, 2012.
• "Green to Gold, What Does Every Entrepreneur Need to Know About Being Green In These Times," moderator, MIT Enterprise Forum, February 28,2012.
• "Do You Want To Start A Company," panelist, University of Miami Entrepreneur Boot Camp, December 13, 2011.
• "Protecting Your Competitive Advantage: Patents, Trademarks & Copyright," speaker, Your Competitive Advantage: The Basics of Intellectual Property Protection seminar presented by The USF Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors, April 22, 2011.
• "The Medical Entrepreneur," contributor, Nano 2.0 Business Press, December 2010.
• "If You Build A Better Mousetrap, Will the World Really Beat a Path To Your Door?," panelist, MIT Enterprise Forum, November 18, 2010.
  
  
• "Open Source: Is Open Really Free?," presenter, University of Central Florida Incubator, November 3, 2010.
  
• "The Importance of Intellectual Property," presenter, Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Orlando, Florida, January 26, 2010.
  
  
• "Business Method Patents: Will you still be able to get them?," presenter, University of Central Florida - Division of Continuing Education, January 28, 2009.
  
  
• MIT Enterprise Forum of South Florida's presentation of It's a Small World: Innovations in Nanotechnology, keynote speaker, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, November 15, 2007. 
  
  
• China Business Briefings:  Export and Import Strategies, panelist, Orlando, Florida, March 14, 2007 and Atlanta, Georgia, March 16, 2007.
  
  
• "Supreme Court Hands Power Back To Content Providers", Florida Venture Forum Guide 2005/2006 (reprinted in 2006/2007 edition).
  
  
• "Issues in Intellectual Property," panelist, Invention to Venture I2V Workshops in Technology Entrepreneurship, November 17, 2006.
  
  
• "The MIT Enterprise Forum of South Florida on Global Entrepreneurship: Inefficiency as Opportunity in the Developing World," moderator, September 21, 2006.
  
  
• "Trolling for dollars," co-author, Daily Business Review, July 25, 2006.
  
  
• "Trademarks - No Defense Against Pop-Up Advertising," Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP Intellectual Property Bulletin, Spring 2006.
  
  
• "Like the big dogs - New tools help you police the use of your trademarks on your own," Daily Business Review, November 22, 2005.
  
  
• "Supreme Court Recognizes Inducement Liability For Copyright Infringement," Edwards & Angell Intellectual Property Bulletin, Summer/Fall 2005.
  
  
• "Strategic Market Choices Based on Intellectual Property Advantage," moderator, MIT/Enterprise Forum of South Florida jointly with the Licensing Executive Society Interactive Case Studies Series, March 25, 2005.
  
  
• "Due Care Required To Avoid Willful Infringement, But An Infringement Opinion Isn't," co-author, Edwards & Angell Intellectual Property Bulletin, Winter 2005.
  
  
• "Courts Confused by Pop-Up Ads," CIPerati vol. 1, Issue 2, June 2004.
  
  
• "Pop-up Ads Skirt Trademark, Copyright Sanctions for Now," Mass High Tech, February 2, 2004.
  
  
• "Intellectual Property Issues in e-Commerce: Potholes on the Information Super Highway," Florida Atlantic University.
  
  
• "Alleviating Cash Flow Problems By Transferring IP Strategically."
  
  
• "Advising Start Up and Emerging Companies."
  
  
• "Patents As Defense In The Customs Office," Edwards & Angell IP Bulletin.

• More Publications...

Before joining the Firm, Howard was General Counsel for Nanovation Technologies, an early stage company which designed and manufactured integrated nanophotonic circuitry. Prior to that, he was a partner in the New York and Boston offices of a major United States firm, where he co-founded their e-commerce group.

An avid bike rider, living in Florida affords Howard the chance to bike ride year round. Howard is also a Director of The Brotherhood of Temple Dor Dorim and a Director of the Weston Republican Club. Howard has been appointed Chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum of South Florida. He was recently appointed to the Board of Trustees for Women In Distress of Broward County. He is also the founder and Chair of the MIT Fire Circle (a peer to peer network of technology entrepreneurs) and a former Board member of the South Florida Technology Alliance.