Ken Allen



Ken Allen has practiced patent law in Palo Alto, California, since 1975, recently as Senior Counsel at Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton LLP and for nearly three decades as partner with its predecessor firm Townsend and Townsend and Crew.  He graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1975 and studied patent law at Harvard Law School.  He received a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering with emphasis in Applied Physics from MIT in 1972 and a BSEE Degree from Brigham Young University in 1971.  He is licensed to practice in the State of California, in the U.S. Federal Courts and before the United States Supreme Court.  At Kilpatrick Townsend, he specializes in patent preparation, prosecution and counseling for startups in terrestrial and satellite telecommunications, software, solar, genome analysis and laser applications.  In 2006 he resumed active practice after a nineteen-month sabbatical leave in Hamburg, Germany doing volunteer church work with his wife among local young single adults. 

 

Ken has been an invited speaker at the India IPR Summit in Mumbai and the CISIS Software Conference in Dalian, China, as well as the U.S/ Canada Licensing Executive Society Conference and the EPPIC Global Conference.  He has also been a guest lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the IEEE Professional Communications Society, Conference; the World Intellectual Property Law Association, Tokyo; Stanford University Graduate School of Business; and Santa Clara University School of Law.

 

 Ken currently serves on the Board of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and as President of the Adobe Meadow Neighborhood Association.  He is Vice President and founding Board Member of the International Organization for Peace, an initiative of Muslims, Jews and Christian promoting dialogue on the challenges of the Middle East.  

 

Since 1991 he has spent his free time film-making community-interest videos of concerts, sports and lectures for cable television.  He served on the Board and as an officer of Cable Co-op of Palo Alto, where he oversaw the distribution of more than $4 million in community gifts after the sale of the company to AT&T (now Comcast).  As an amateur actor, he played Harry MacAfee in “Bye, Bye Birdie” and newspaper editor Charles Webb in Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.”  He has written, edited and helped translate source texts for a book on Swiss family history, and he has published journal articles as diverse as patents and history of western pioneers.  He has written historical fiction as well as nonfiction on various topics in both English and German.  He has been a licensed amateur radio operator for nearly 50 years and volunteers in emergency communications. 

 

His extraordinary wife Sue and five remarkable children all love him but generally ignore his advice.

Further background on Ken Allen
Contact ken@kenallen.org
Collected essays, articles and artwork from Ken Allen

Ken Allen Video Productions see www.kenallen.tv
  • writes nonfiction 
  • writes fiction 
  • enjoys photography 
  • collects Allen, Roundy, Smith and Akert family history and heritage. (Collections on CD are available upon request.)
  • Here is an excerpt from his book on the Akerts of Zürich, Switzerland.
  • Here is a biography of his great grandfather English immigrant Albert Smith 1854-1931.
  • Here is a collection of Smith and Akert family paintings.
  • His published article on “Daniel Allen, Pioneer Tanner,” published in the International Genealogical Journal is available on request for download here.
  • He is LinkedIn

 

Career: Patent attorney at Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP
 K e n @ k e n a l l e n . o r g