Doug’s practice focuses on the preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications, patent portfolio management and counseling, patent analysis, IP due diligence, and patent litigation support.

 

Doug began his legal career at an intellectual property law firm in Portland, Oregon where he represented clients ranging from patent-savvy global technology corporations to solo inventors looking to file their first patent application. There, he prepared and prosecuted numerous patent applications, wrote invalidity and non-infringement opinions, drafted claim charts and inter partes reexamination petitions in support of patent litigation, and performed IP due diligence in support of acquisition and merger efforts.

 

Doug then returned to a large multinational corporation, where he had previously been a circuit designer, to take an in-house position as a patent portfolio manager. Doug managed global patent portfolios comprising thousands of assets in the software, data center, and networking technology areas. He successfully operated in a high-volume environment, managing over $2M in annual outside counsel spend and working with dozens of outside attorneys to file over 200 new patent applications annually over a several-year span.

 

In his in-house role, Doug worked with a variety of stakeholders to identify key strategic technologies and procure patent rights in those areas. He worked to increase patent portfolio value by identifying and developing key patent assets and minimizing resources spent on less-important ones. He evangelized the importance of patents to the inventor community through continuous outreach efforts and developed strong relationships with key technical personnel to ensure the legal department was kept appraised of developments in technology areas of strategic importance.

 

Doug’s engineering and legal careers have provided him a solid foundation to manage and develop patent assets in a wide range of technologies including cloud and data center architectures (software and hardware), networking, packet processing, operating systems, semiconductor manufacturing and processing, semiconductor device physics, processor architecture, artificial intelligence, machine learning, thermal management of server and rack systems, and medical devices.

 

Outside of work, Doug enjoys the outdoors. Various activities such as mountaineering, cycling, hiking, and backpacking have held his interest throughout the years, with thru-hiking being his current focus. He spent several months on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2018 and currently has his sights set on the Pacific Northwest Trail. Doug also enjoys photography and international travel, is an avid fan of the Wisconsin Badgers, and is involved with various colorectal cancer non-profit organizations.

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Education

J.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, cum laude

M.S., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Electrical & Computer Engineering

B.S., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Electrical & Computer Engineering, with distinction

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Admissions

State Bar of Wisconsin

Oregon State Bar

United States Patent and Trademark Office