Biography
Across a wide range of industries, Mike collaborates closely with clients to craft tailored intellectual property strategies that foster innovation and safeguard market position. His practice is currently centered on patent-related matters involving medical devices, robotics, biopharma research and manufacturing, consumer products, construction materials, outdoor recreation, and automotive technologies.
With nearly two decades of experience, Mike has developed deep expertise in analyzing prior art, drafting and prosecuting patent applications, rendering strategic patent opinions, and managing complex IP portfolios. This foundation has been instrumental in his successful representation of clients in post-grant proceedings before the USPTO, including inter partes reviews.
Mike’s success is driven by a combination of technical insight, strategic focus, and a deep understanding of both the legal and engineering aspects of innovation. His perspective is shaped not only by his extensive private practice experience but also by his hands-on work in an automotive R&D lab and as in-house counsel at a leading automotive company—giving him a well-rounded, practical approach to advising clients at every stage of innovation.
Mike is routinely identified by his peers as a respected and trusted advisor, having been selected for 5 consecutive years (2012–2016) for inclusion in the Illinois Rising Stars® lists, featuring outstanding young attorneys in the state. Since 2018, he was selected as a "Leading Lawyer" by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He was recognized as an “Emerging Lawyer” in the 2015–2017 editions of Emerging Lawyers Magazine, in which individuals are recognized among the top up-and-coming attorneys in Illinois who are under 40 or have been practicing less than 10 years. Additionally, Mike has been selected as one of the “World’s Leading Patent Practitioners” by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine since 2015.
Representative Experience
- After first securing broad and blanketing patent rights on a client’s revolutionary refrigerator shelf product, successfully defended a competitor’s attack on those rights in the U.S. Patent Office’s nuanced inter partes review proceedings.
- Advised and counseled global consumer safety organization through redeveloping and redefining its internal invention protection program.
- Successfully secured a multitude of patents for international process controls company by creatively highlighting innovative and novel developments in century-old fields of art.
- Built international patent portfolio for Fortune 500 pharma company, directed to novel wearable injector developed for automatically administering an infection-fighting therapeutic the day after cytotoxic chemotherapy.
- Prosecuted numerous international patents to grant, providing blanketing protection for client’s revolutionary hand-held drug delivery device, including various features to facilitate usability and optimize user experience.
Background and Credentials
Mike focuses on preparing and prosecuting patent applications, both domestic and abroad, as well as advising clients on patent portfolio management, patentability, patent enforcement, and related concerns. He also has experience counseling clients on general trademark matters.
He is the former chair of the Industrial & Mechanical Technologies practice group, an active member of the firm's CleanTech group, and former elected member of the firm's Associates' Committee.
Mike brings a valued understanding of client needs from his experience before joining the firm as in-house patent counsel for an automotive supplier in Nagoya, Japan. There, he was responsible for managing the preparation and prosecution of multinational patent applications in a variety of technical fields.
Mike received his J.D. from DePaul University College of Law where he became a member of the DePaul Law Review and received the DePaul College of Law Top Scholar Scholarship. Before attending law school, he received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Education
- DePaul University College of Law (J.D.)
- University of Michigan (B.S.)
- Mechanical Engineering
Bar Admissions
Publications and Presentations
- “Federal Circuit Changes Standard For Evaluating Means-Plus-Function Claims,” Co-Author, Marshall Gerstein Alert, June 18, 2015.
- “First-to-File: The race to the patent office is on,” Co-Author, The Illinois Manufacturer, Fall 2013.
- “Trademark Owners: Nine steps to defend your brand on the new Internet,” Co-Author, The Illinois Manufacturer, Fall 2012.