PATENT SEARCHING SPECIALISTS

Scott Carlson - Patent Searching Specialist

Scott Carlson is a Patent Searching Specialist at James Ray & Associates.  Mr. Carlson attended Pennsylvania State University and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering in 1984 and an Associate Degree in Mining Technology in 1980.

Prior to joining James Ray & Associates, Mr. Carlson was a commercial construction project manager and performed duties in the areas of quantity takeoff, bidding, purchasing, scheduling, permit acquisition and job site supervision. Additionally, he has 10 years of experience in installation, repair, training and sales of a wide range of passenger car and truck service equipment. 

Mr. Carlson has firsthand experience as an inventor.  He currently owns one issued U.S. patent, has two pending U.S. patent applications and one pending PCT patent application. His education, knowledge and expertise have provided him with a strong foundation for performing quality patent searches. 

Leon W. Wilson, Jr. - Patent Searching Specialist

Leon W. Wilson, Jr. is a Patent Searching Specialist at James Ray & Associates.  Mr. Wilson earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Carnegie Institute of Technology. In addition, he received his M.S. Ph.D in Organic Chemistry from the University of Nebraska.

Mr. Wilson was previously employed at DuPont, conducting research with photochemical reactions. Thereafter he moved to U.S. Steel Corporation’s Chemical Division to perform research on plasticizer, high impact polystyrene, expandable polystyrene and biological treatment of blast furnace recycle blow down and coke plant waste waters. In the Polypropylene Division of Aristech Chemical Corporation, as Manager of Technical Services, Mr. Wilson interfaced with injection molders, the automotive industry, and the FDA regarding the food safety of polypropylene.

Andy Kowatch - Patent Searching Specialist

Andy Kowatch is a Patent Searching Specialist at James Ray & Associates. He has a Master’s degree in Business Administration and thirty-five years of experience with manufacturing design, specification, quality control, implementations assembly, and business systems. Mr. Kowatch is involved with electro-mechanical systems as well as global patent searches. He is extremely meticulous in his areas of expertise which include automotive, heavy equipment, and trucking patent searches. He is also highly accomplished in the areas of computer systems and communication device research including that of security & safety systems, and electronic game devices. He is efficient in patent searching in all areas including the areas of implements, equipment, sporting equipment and household appliances.

Frank C. Vigani - Patent Searching Specialist

Frank C. Vigani is a Patent Searching Specialist at James Ray & Associates.  Mr. Vigani holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania and has extensive work experience as an engineer. 

Mr. Vigani worked for the Mellon Institute of Carnegie-Melon University from 1966 to 1975 as a Research Engineer on various water pollution abatement studies.  From 1975 to 1986 Mr. Vigani served as a Research Engineer for United States Steel Corporation where he performed laboratory and field pilot plant studies for the installation of various water pollution abatement equipment, designed and built a continuous polypropylene pilot plant, and developed various mathematical models for the production of polypropylene. 

Mr. Vigani worked as a Senior Process Engineer for Aristech Chemicals Corp. (ACC) from 1986 to 1999 where he was responsible for developing pilot plant products that  were ultimately produced in various ACC plants.  He also developed mathematical process models of various in plant operations and he participated in the startup of two polypropylene manufacturing plants.

As a Senior Staff Engineer for Sunoco Chemicals from 2000-2003, Mr. Vigani developed a full scale propylene distillated design for retrofit of an existing unit and troubleshot various process problems at Sunoco Chemicals’ polypropylene facilities.

Mr. Vigani has been performing patent searches for James Ray & Associates since 2004.  His work experience and scientific background has provided him with the skills necessary to communicate with inventors, understand various types of inventions, and perform comprehensive patent searches in a variety of fields.  

Frank J. Jerina, Jr. - Patent Searching Specialist

Frank J. Jerina, Jr. is a Patent Searching Specialist at James Ray & Associates.  Mr. Jerina previously held positions with Remote Control Systems, Echoram Technology Inc., Westinghouse Nuclear Services Division & NDE Technology, Inc.  These positions included responsibilities such as: performing assembly, testing and trouble-shooting various electronic systems at component  level to whole system integration, Eddy-Current examinations as a level I , II, IIA, IIAQDA (Qualified Data Analyst) and III QDA, as well as performing Eddy-Current data management,

Mr. Jerina attended Electronic Institutes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1981-1983.  He continued his education at Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania between 1990 -1996 earning an accumulated total of 112 credits towards an Electronic Engineering Technology Degree.  

Todd E. Chornenky - Patent Searching Specialist

Todd E. Chornenky is a Patent Searching Specialist at James Ray & Associates.  His education and work history provide him with a wealth of knowledge to aid him in understanding the complexities of various types of inventions, communicating with clients, and performing comprehensive patent searches.  Mr. Chornenky holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.    He has over 15 years experience in the areas of project management, business management, heavy industry manufacturing, real-time systems design, hardware interface, embedded systems, facilities startup, biometric security, and patent process. 

Mr. Chornenky’s extensive work history includes serving as Chief Executive Officer of FnBiometrics, LLC, where he persevered in filing key patents, assembling a management team, and filed SBIRs.  He also served as a senior software engineer for Nokomis Inc. where he designed and developed a pattern recognition system for Nokomis’ RF based classified military/security products. Mr. Chornenky served as President and was a Co-founder of CHX, a CNC manufacturing company specializing in the manufacture of large, precise, exotic, custom and unusual shapes.  At CHX he performed all management and technical duties related to CNC pattern design, CNC machine milling operations, plywood product finishing, accounting, website design and Intellectual Property conception/patent protection.  He spent time as a realtime coding consultant for Chemtech.   He worked for CP Industries working with a realtime GUI display/logging NDT system.  Other job history includes performing custom data acquisition, IR remote control signal matching, working on driving LCD/LED ASCII displays, working on 68332 and PIC12c509 systems, and duties regarding the system conversion and installation of the Seoul, Korea, subway control system.  Moreover, as a USX systems engineer, Mr. Chornenky served as a project manager on the startup of #3 blast furnaces at Edgar Thompson plant where he directed & coordinated contractors, sub-contractors, consultants and vendors.  His duties also included extending and modifying functional specs, setup and directing of  test procedures for factory checkouts and responsibilities relating to field installation of equipment, including networks, PLCs, and micros.

Mr. Chornenky is familiar with schematics, electrical prints, P&I diagrams, loop diagrams, 4-20 MA control circuits, PID loops, A/D, D/A converters, signal generators, oscilloscopes, datascopes,  time-domain reflectometers, shaft encoders, pulse counters, load cells, pressure, temp, flow transmitters, solenoids, control valves, motor control centers, breadboarding prototypes, wirewrapped prototyping, as well as embedded systems hardware (MSP430FG4618, MC6811, etc.) design , driving LED dot-addressable displays, interfacing to RAM, tri-state buffers, Rs-232, VOMs,  RF transmitter/receiver antenna tuning, camera optics, I2C bus, Uarts, SPI bus, some FPGA knowledge etc. Additionally, Mr. Chornenky has firsthand experience with the patent process.  


Please click on the links below to view the biographies of our additional staff members:

Patent Attorneys

Patent Agents