Patenting a Better Way to Exercise

Vibrating massage for decades was considered a good way to exercise. But most machines had only one speed. The Vibrating Massage Machine, patent 2,860,630 filed and defended by Don Zarley, offered an infinite number of speeds within certain limits and an easy way to change speeds. The invention made the exercise machine more durable, economical, […]

Service to Community

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For 100 years, McKee, Voorhees & Sease attorneys have shown their outsized commitment to the local community. From leading local boards and commissions to volunteering innumerable hours at non-profits, most commitments go unrecognized.  Some major milestones: 1990-1992 — Drake University elects Don Zarley (’54) as Chairman of its Board of Trustees. 2011 — Luke Mohrhauser […]

Protecting Against the Next COVID

Post the COVID pandemic, McKee, Voorhees & Sease deepens its international engagement when Jill Link presents at the 2022-2023 Harvard Law School & World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) course with international practitioners focused on utilizing IP to stimulate production and distribution of technologies, including vaccines and medicines, to ensure preparation for future pandemics and assessing […]

The Women of McKee, Vorhees & Sease

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Unique in the legal profession, McKee, Voorhees & Sease is a firm with fifty percent women partners. In 1985, Pat Sweeney, one of the first female patent attorneys in Iowa, began practicing at McKee, Voorhees & Sease. Today, five female patent attorneys are shareholders of the firm.

Nighttime Football Changes Sports Television Viewing

Musco’s U.S. Patent 4,423,471 covered mobile lighting trucks used by ABC to light the first night-time, nationally televised football game at Notre Dame University stadium in South Bend, Indiana with sufficient and uniform light levels across the field required for high quality broadcast television.

Protecting IP with “First Impression” Court Decision

June 3, 1988 decision of “first impression” obtained by Ed Sease at the specialized U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in Washington, D.C. It was the first time the CAFC had directly dealt with the issue. An employee assigned all patent rights in his invention to employer Diamond Scientific. The employee left […]

Serving the Legal Profession

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Attorneys take an oath to support the legal profession and McKee, Voorhees & Sease attorneys have always gone above expectations. Significant milestones in volunteering include: 1989—Kirk Hartung elected as an officer of the Young Lawyers Division (YLD) of the Iowa State Bar Association which leads to his 1991-1992 term as YLD statewide President. Kirk later […]

Educating Tomorrow’s IP Counsel

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Over more than four decades, multiple McKee, Voorhees & Sease attorneys have served as adjunct law professors, teaching Trademark Law and Intellectual Property courses at Drake University Law School and at the University of Iowa, College of Law. The law firm has long been committed to paying forward academic and professional excellence by teaching next […]

Leadership on the International Legal Stage

We are active in LEGUS International, a 30-year-old global network of diverse independent law firms serving members and clients. With approximately 70 law firms from around the world, LEGUS provides a non-competitive and trusting environment between members where they can share information and collaborate to create strategies, processes and visioning to serve their clients and […]

Fostering Peer Leadership Networks

Iowa is one of 35 Licensing Executives Society (LES) chapters in US and Canada. McKee, Voorhees & Sease attorney Jill Link is a founding member of the LES Iowa chapter and served as 2019 Iowa Chapter Chair. Our attorneys have a long history of leading professionals and groups improving aspects of innovation.  Jill is also […]