I enjoy connecting with inventors and discussing complex technologies. Sharing in inventors’ passion for their inventions and crafting IP protection in diverse technical areas is very rewarding. I also enjoy freedom to operate studies, and infringement and non-infringement opinion work. I’m involved in the business side of law firm management, being instrumental in helping to grow and manage the firm, currently serving as General Counsel and Chairman of the Board.
Prior to becoming a patent attorney, I worked part-time for Honeywell International, Inc. creating computer simulations while obtaining EE and Law Degrees from the University of Minnesota. From 1984-1993, I worked at IBM in Rochester, Minnesota, as Counsel and Manager of the Intellectual Property Law Department, identifying several key inventions and wrote many important patents, including the RAID V patent, magneto-optic recording patents, operating system patents, distributed computing patents, networking patents, and basic patents covering server driven work processing, known as IPC. Many of these patents brought in significant royalties for IBM. From 1994-1995, I was a Division Counsel and the Copyright and Trademark Counsel for IBM worldwide in New York and was featured in the National Law Journal as an attorney having reached the peak of his profession.
With SLW, I have written and prosecuted patent applications in diverse technologies, including artificial intelligence, cloud-based computing, DNA based memories, nanotechnology, apps, applications, operating systems, disk drives, memories, optical networks, optical ring resonators, WiFi, semiconductor, CVD Diamond, and many other technologies.
I am currently Vice Chair of the AIPLA Legislation Committee, served on the AIPLA Board of Directors 2013-2015, and have served as Chair of several AIPLA Committees including the Patent Relations with the USPTO Committee, Special Committee on Publications, the AIPLA Electronics and Computer Law Committee, and the Emerging Technologies Committee. As a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association, I served on the Board of Governors and was previously President of the Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association and past Committee Chair of the AIPLA Electronics and Computer Law Committee, and Emerging Technologies Committee of the AIPLA.
University of Minnesota Law School
Minneapolis, MN, 1981, J.D.
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN, 1978, B.S.E.E.
Minnesota
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Honeywell, Inc., 1978-1980
Rosemount, Inc., Patent Attorney, 1981-1984
IBM, Rochester, Minnesota, Counsel, Manager, Intellectual Property Law Department, 1984-1993
IBM, New York, Division Counsel, Copyright and Trademark Counsel, 1994-1995
AIPLA
Past Chair of the Computer and Electronics Committee
Past Chair of the Emerging Technologies Committee
Frequent Road Show and Stated Meeting Speaker IPO
Software and Business Methods Committee
MIPLA
CLE Chair
Past President
MSBA
Past Board of Governors